Das Wochenende

Imagination

2009-05-31T23:02:00.001+10:00

Owen has the most extraordinary imaginary play. Here are a few examples:

1)About a year ago, Owen started to have an imaginary friend "Little bear". He was VERY little - he would sit in the palm of Owen's hand. Not long afterwards, little bear was joined by "little cloud", who appeared to be about the same size. These friends would appear unexpectedly anywhere (yes, ANYWHERE) we happened to be. Owen, being very inclusive, would insist that all and sundry acknowledged and included them in whatever we were doing at the time.

We now have a theory as to where these friends originated. Check out the photo below - of the twins enjoying a playmat (given to Owen by Nathan's colleagues in Germany). If you look really closely, you will see... a little bear and... a little cloud!!

One of our old posts shows proof that Owen once used this playmat; quite obviously, these toys were imprinted in his mind from a very young age, hid in his subconscious, and only now resurfaced.

More recently, Owen has added "big bear" and "big sister" to his posse. We have no theories yet as to where they came from.

2) Owen is rather obsessed with dinosaurs, not uncommon in young boys. For some reason, he has a favourite; the diplodocus. This was one of the first dinosaur skeletons that Owen saw, at the nature museum in Denver during our 2008 trip.

You may not know this, but there is a family of Diplodoci in Sydney! They consist of Daddy Diplodocus (Nathan), Mummy Diplodocus (Jo), Dabby Diplodocus (Owen), Abby Diplodocus and Sean Diplodocus. Owen can get quite upset if you call him Owen at the wrong time. In the photo below, you can see Dabby's diplodocus tail. Dabby must be the only Diplodocus in world history to play Wii tennis!

Fortunately, he understands that not everyone understands his imaginary world. "At preschool, I'm just Owen", he says.

I think our esteemed dinosaur researchers will be rather surprised to find out what baby diplodoci like to eat. "Bones, leaves, chocolate biscuits, mango biscuits and plum biscuits".

Updated photos - 3 months old

2009-05-21T22:00:00.000+10:00

Top Abby, Bottom Sean:

Sean, Abby:

Sean:

Abby:

Sean, Owen, Abby.

Updated photos - 2 months old

2009-05-18T00:04:00.001+10:00

The babies are now 4 months old, and the last photos were when they were only 1 month old. It's been a bit hard to get around to blogging, so this and the next few posts are a bit of a catch-up post with some photos at roughly monthly intervals. We've named people left to right.

Jo, Abby, Sean:

Jo, Abby, Owen:

Owen, Abby:

Abby, Sean:

The (illustrated) guide to breastfeeding twins

2009-02-14T10:20:00.004+11:00

Jo commonly gets asked about breastfeeding twins. "At the same time?? How do you manage that?"

Here's how to twin breastfeed BY YOURSELF!

1) You need to get the right equipment. A wide sofa and a feeding pillow will make things much easier. A double bed pushed against a wall can substitute for the sofa.

2) Set yourself up with one baby on each side (within reach), and fit the feeding pillow.

3) Pick up twin 1, place in position and attach them to your breast. We have it on good authority that the safest way to pick up the baby is by grabbing their body suit.

4) Once twin 1 is feeding well, pick up twin 2. Be very careful that twin 1 doesn't move (ouch!). Best to pack twin 1 in position with cloth nappies so that you can use two hands with twin 2.

5) Attach twin 2. Again, make sure twin 1 doesn't move.

6) After a short time, twin 1 will need a burp. Lift over your shoulder and pat. Remeber to pack twin 2 in place first!

7) Depending on timing, you might end up burping both at the same time.

8) After burping, attach them back. Continue until feeding is finished. Then reverse all the steps to get both babies off the breast and feeding pillow. You are now finished!

Thank you to our models: Owen (mum), Teddy (twin 1) and Steiffi (twin 2). Teddy and Steiffi are the same teddies that Owen gave birth to here. Owen told us that "the teddies had a good feed".

Troubleshooting - FAQ

Q1) I have attached twin 1 successfully, but twin 2 is having trouble attaching. What do I do?

A1) You will need to detach twin 1 so you can concentrate on twin 2. Re-attach twin 1 afterwards.

Q2) One of the babies needs a nappy change and won't feed. What do I do?

A2) Unfortunately, you will need to detach both babies and put them back on the couch, remove the feeding pillow, and change the offending baby. Then, start from step 1 to re-attach both.

Q3) An older sibling is misbehaving while I am feeding. What should I do.

A3) When you figure this out, could you let me know??

Q4) Something happens, and I must quickly move from the couch. What can I do?

A4) If your feeding pillow is equipped with a belt, you can stand up with the pillow and babies all attached. This is only recommended for emergencies!

Q5) This sounds too hard. How can I make this easier?

A5) Get help! A second pair of hands can pass the babies to you when needed, and take them for burping or nappy changes.

Higher Authority

2009-02-14T09:02:00.000+11:00

Nathan had just finished on a conference call with Germany. He came to the dinner table, and talked to Owen.

Nathan: I was just talking to my boss. My big, big boss!
Owen (after a short pause): God??
Nathan (trying not to laugh): Um, no, not THAT big a boss! Good question, though!

Same... or different?

2009-02-09T11:50:00.000+11:00

Would you expect Abby and Sean to be very similar, or different? They have the same parents, shared a womb for 38 weeks, were born within 30 minutes of each other, and haven't really been apart for the first weeks of their life. How different could they possibly be?

Even at this young age, there are quite a few differences we've noticed. Want to play a game? Try and guess which ways they are the same... or different.

Options: Looks, usage of nappies, eating/burping/chucking, sleeping, crying.

And the answers:

1) Looks - depends who you ask. You can clearly tell them apart if you know what to look for, but when you find yourself holding one of them at 3am, and can't directly compare to the other its easy to make a mistake. Here is another gratuitous photo of them. Can you tell who is who?

2) Usage of nappies - different.

Sean uses about twice as many nappies as Abby. How does he manage this? Step 1 - synchronise your poos to start shortly before you are due for a feed, and refuse to attach until your nappy is changed. Step 2 - continue your poo during the feed, and stop feeding until your nappy is changed. Step 3 - finish your poo with a flourish after the feed is over, and refuse to sleep until your nappy is changed.

How many nappies does an average newborns use a day? Usually around 8. They get 6-8 feeds a day, and need a change at each feed. Then they might need a change or two if they wake up between feeds with a particularly wet or dirty nappy.

3) Eating/burping/chucking - different.

Abby tends to feed quickly, and will have at most two session each time. It is really hard to get her to burp, even though she really needs it before she will sleep. She rarely chucks (that's slang for vomiting).

Sean stays attached for much longer, and seems to always want to come back for more. He burps very easily - sometimes he even burps himself during the feed! And he chucks several times each feed, often through his nose (poor thing!).

4) Sleeping - same... but different.

Both of them sleep soundly for 3 out of 4 sleeps, and have 1 or 2 very bad sleep sessions a day. They are different in that they don't synchronise their poor sleep times. They have tended to have their unsettled times during the night, but would take turns so that we end up with very little sleep. Unfortunately we haven't been able to catch up during the good day sleeps, because Owen is awake and wanting attention.

We've kept going with the swaddling, which is supposed to help them sleep longer. They both try to free their arms, and in this photo were partially successful.

5) Crying - Different.

When they were born, Abby sounded like a cockatoo, and Sean like a piglet. Want to hear it? Click here.

1st day of (pre-)school

2009-01-31T17:20:00.002+11:00

Owen is really growing up! Of course we know this, but two things have recently brought this fact home to us.

Firstly, once Abby and Sean were born, Owen overnight grew much bigger, heavier and more mature; a psychological effect of now comparing him to his much smaller siblings. We have had to be quite careful when adjusting across the age gap; the first time Nathan tried to pick up Owen straight after carrying Abby, he nearly threw his back out!

The other - this week he had his first day of preschool! Here he is fully equipped with his new pre-school bag.

Unloading his provisions for the day:

There were no tears at all - in fact, Owen hardly had time to say goodbye to mum and dad, before he was off to play.

One week old

2009-01-22T23:09:00.002+11:00

Abby and Sean turned 1 week old today!

After 4 nights at the hospital, mum and the newborns came home! They were very small in the car seats - here is Sean all snug and secure.

The first few nights at home have been a bit tiring, as expected. Breast-feeding is all the harder when you have twins. You need to feed them at the same time in order to have time for other important activities (such as sleep!), but feeding two together is not easy! Probably for a while, Nathan will need to wake up for the night feeds to lend a hand.

Having twins after Owen has been both good and bad. Jo is much more experienced at breast feeding, which makes a huge difference. But Owen also needs our attention, sometimes at the worst possible time!

We have lots of photos of course. Although not as many as with Owen. Probably because we both tend to have our hands full of baby, rather than a camera. We think the cutest photos are of Abby and Sean right up next to each other. It's also easier to work out who is who that way; Nathan still occassionally gets them mixed up! In the following two photos, Abby is on the left.

WARNING! Skip the rest of this post if you don't like poo stories.

One highlight of the first week is that Nathan managed to get poo'd on! This is actually quite an achievement when you think about it. Most mums and dads would have experienced the suprise wee in the face (Nathan on his first nappy change with Owen!), but poo??? The secret is in the timing. You have to pick a time when your baby has explosive, mustard poo. Then you have to remove the old nappy at exactly the time that your baby explodes. Here is the evidence:

What's in a name?

2009-01-18T19:47:00.000+11:00

If you are wondering about the names, here are the meanings:
Abigail = Father's joy.
Thea = Gift of God.

Sean = Gift of God.
Thomas = Twin.

We have a bit of a theme going in our family. Nathan, Johanna and Matthias (Owen's middle name) also mean "Gift of God".

And here is a photo of a 3 headed monster we discovered in our room:

One big family

2009-01-16T22:20:00.003+11:00

Firstly, thanks for all the well wishes we have received! We have appreciated your concern and prayers over this time.

Owen was very excited that the "babies" were finally out, but it was a bit late for Owen to meet his new brother and sister on the day they were born. Today was the day when we could be one big family! He was very excited, and marvelled at their tiny hands and feet. Here is a photo of all of us:

It didn't take long for two sleeping babies to bore him, though. We are hoping that he will adjust well, and continue to be proud of his new status: BIG BROTHER. Fortunately his baby brother and sister were thoughtful enough to bring him some presents - one of which gave him a bit of valuable mummy time.

We found it interesting that in Australia, the babies are all tightly swaddled - see below.

It makes for a cute photo, but is quite different to Germany, where the little ones were given freedom to stretch their arms eg Owen in Germany.

They also have a very snazzy hearing screening test. The tester plays a series of beeps to the babies, and monitors nerve activity to make sure the signals are getting through. You'll be happy to know that Abby and Sean passed with flying colours.

More about the birth

2009-01-16T22:05:00.004+11:00

We are very thankful that Jo did not have to have a caesarian section, unlike over 95% of twin deliveries at this particular hospital. Jo was induced, and had to have an epidural because they were twins. Less than 7 hours later they were both out - a bit longer than with Owen (around 5 hours), but probably slowed a bit by the epidural. If you want more gory details, you'll need to ask Jo in person.

Although the birth itself was straight forward, there were a few dramas in other areas:

1) The weather in Sydney was VERY hot that day - pushing towards 40C in some areas. The air conditioning wasn't working that well, and Jo really felt it. To make things worse, there was a fire alarm right when Jo was fully dilated, and just about ready to push! She had visions of having to give birth while being evacuated!! The nurses and midwives were very calm, and ignored the alarm, which they rightly assumed was a false alarm caused by the high temperatures.

2) Unfortunately, the day of the birth was one of the busiest the birthing unit had had for a long time. All the suites were being used, and the midwives were run off their feet. This was no problem during labour; but once the babies were born, we dropped in priority. We had to cool our heels for a while before Jo could get cleaned up and moved to her room. This was a bit frustrating, because it seemed like all the work had been done, but we couldn't settle down and rest.

3) Perhaps to balance out the hot labour, the room Jo, Abby and Sean stayed in on the first night was very cold - like being in a fridge. The nurses told us that the air conditioning control panel (which could be used to control each room individually) had been locked up by maintenance people; in the past, too much fiddling of the settings had caused the system to break down! The nurses became concerned when Sean's (the lighter one) temperature dropped, so they all got moved to a more temperate room.

Despite all this, Jo was very positive about her experience. The difficulties were not the fault of the staff, who were lovely, and were really quite minor. It was all alot easier than when Owen was born in Germany (newer readers might want to check out our 2005 posts) - due to language (having to concentrate on translation leaves less energy for other things), as well as cultural differences.

They're here!

2009-01-15T23:44:00.003+11:00

Announcing the arrival of Abigail Thea (pronounced "Tay-ah") and Sean Thomas on 15th Jan, 2009.

At 38 weeks (considered full term for twins), Abby was 2.7kg, Sean 2.45kg.

Here is a photo of them (Sean on the left).

More to come - gotta get some sleep.

I've got teddies in my tummy!

2008-11-16T21:00:00.001+11:00

Here is Owen "pregnant" with two teddies.

Oh yeah, for those who don't know yet, you can also see Jo pregnant with twins!

Here is Owen, doing extremely well after the uncomplicated birth of twin teddies. For those interested in details, it was a home birth, neck hole delivery, drug free, and over in less than 1 minute. Jo is hoping that the birth of the twins will be just as trouble free.

Around the World 2 - USA

2008-11-16T20:34:00.006+11:00

We went through the USA on our way back to Australia.

First stop Philadelphia, where Owen's uncle Richard took a few days off work to:

1) Take us to the beach, where Owen got to try what they called "Pie" (looks like pizza, tastes like pizza...). Of course, it has to be bigger than anywhere else on the planet.

2) Take us to Sesame Place - a Sesame Street theme-park. Here Owen got to stand in queue to meet "Big" Cookie Monster, "Big" Bert and "Big" Earnie - in the felt, as it were.

For weeks after this, Owen's favourite song was "C is for Cookie" , which he would often sing at the top of his voice.

3) Let him play a drum game on Nintendo (Actually, he didn't need the game - it was fun enough without the technology).

4) Eat at a "diner". Where the food isn't any good, and they are very patriotic. Owen had to join in, or they would take him for a foreigner!

Next was Denver, where Nathan's cousin and family are living. Owen had lots of fun with his three second cousins - seen here having some jello (that's american for jelly).

We happened to be there at the time of the Democrats' convention, so there were quite a few crowds, and lots of merchandise to buy.

Nathan couldn't help himself, and purchased some Obama playing cards. Obama is pictured on all the A and K cards, and both George Bush and McCane are on the jokers. Other celebreties (presumably supporters) are shown on the other cards.

One down side of the convention was that many of the tourist sites were booked out with functions. We tried to see the "red rocks" - a natural formation of rocks - travelling quite some distance only to find that it was off-limits to non-democrats (okay, that's not quite true - to non-invited guests). Still, we had a nice view.

Around the world 1 - Leipzig

2008-11-08T20:48:00.015+11:00

In August, the family went on a round the world trip (yes, we are a bit tardy - some explanations in the following posts). It was primarily a business trip for Nathan, but we fit in some holidays in between.

Owen had not been on a plane for nearly 2 years, and last time he went he couldn't walk. What a difference this time!

Up until this trip, Owen had not tried much ice cream. But lucky for him, he got one almost every day in Leipzig!

Owen didn't mind the change of scenery or language, and didn't take long to start mixing it with the locals. Click here for a video of him playing with the kids at Leipzig English Church - many of which were speaking German.

One day we went out with another two local families to "Woerlitz". It's an English Garden about an hour drive north of Leipzig. Here are all the kids resting under a tree.

We went on a guided boat tour of the waterways, and Owen had a run-in with the swans pictured here. Owen was (as usual) fascinated by the wildlife, and oblivious to any danger. One of the swans pecked him on the cheek! We are not sure what shocked him most - the peck, or being hurled off his seat by one of the mums worried for his welfare.

We also visited the Zoo again. Here is Owen on some of the play equipment. You would never find anything like this in a Sydney playground - much too dangerous!

And finally, Owen getting to know one of the local icons - the green Ampelmann. See here for our previous post on this.

Why??

2008-08-13T17:05:00.002+10:00

It is the stereotype that young children keep asking "WHY". Owen hasn't quite got to that stage, but he knows how to answer if someone asks him the same question.

He has had two phases. Here is an example of the first:

Owen: I need to go outside.
Dad: Why?
Owen: Because it's so messy!
Dad: That's not a reason!

Every time we asked why, he would give the same response - "because it's so messy".

In more recent times, he has changed his response somewhat. For example:

Owen: I just want to play.
Mum: Why?
Owen: Because it's so messy, that's not a reason! [with a huge grin].

Japan

2008-07-14T21:43:00.003+10:00

I (Nathan) went to Japan for work. It was tough going, as I didn't know much Japanese at all.

Here is a melon for sale. Nice packaging, but otherwise quite normal, right? Now, take a look at the price tag. 100 yen is approx 100 cents. Have another look at the price tag. Do the sums...

This is a driving range - on the roof of a department store.

And here is one of those famous Japanese toilets. This was only a standard model - it just had a seat warmer, and two water jets.

The most interesting cultural experience of the trip was staying at a Capsule Hotel. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any photos. Click here for a short description and some photos. Capsule hotels are designed for workers who miss their train home. Rather than taking a taxi, it's cheaper to stay in a (relatively) low cost hotel, where everything is provided for you - disposable razors, shaving cream, deoderant, hair gel, aftershave, ... And to relax, you can soak in a hot spring bath or sauna and get a massage. And to top it off, you can gently drift to sleep to the sound of a dozen men snoring! A few rules, though. Men only, absolutely no tatoos, and no swim suits in the bath.

So how was it? I'm glad I gave it a go, but once is definately enough for me.

Expressions and other games

2008-07-14T20:50:00.010+10:00

One of the games we play with owen is "Expressions". There are several versions to this. For example, Owen will make a face, and we have to guess what expression he is showing. Want to have a go? What do you make of the following? Answers at the end of the post.

In addition to this, we also like to play a few other games. Such as:

Nathan: I'm thinking of an animal. It has no arms and no legs, and goes "SSSSSSS". What is it?
Owen: A snake!
Nathan: That's right. Your turn.

Owen: I'm thinking of an animal. It has no arms, no legs, no body and no head. And it goes "SSSSSS". What is it?

As you can see, Owen doesn't always get it.

Owen has an active imagination. Here is Owen having a picnic with his toys.

And here is "teddy". Teddy is very important to Owen - he sleeps with him every night. Unfortunately, a week ago, Teddy was left behind at Chatswood (Jo's parents). To try and avert a disaster, we called Pops, and asked him to pretend to be teddy (with a high voice), and tell Owen that he was staying at Chatswood tonight.

Pops (high voice): Hi Owen. I'm sleeping at Chatswood tonight.
Owen (bright and cheery): Hi Pops!!
Pops (high voice): I'm teddy!
Owen (slightly upset): Where's teddy?
Pops (high voice): I'm sleeping in Chatswood tonight.
Owen (very distressed) I WANT TEDDY!

Can't fool this one!

Disaster was averted when a replacement bear (Steiffi) filled in.

Those expressions? Happy, thinking, surprised and sad. How did you go?

Forster/Tuncurry

2008-04-18T21:31:00.003+10:00

About a month ago, the family went north for a week long holiday at Forster/Tuncurry; twin towns separated by a short bridge. They are about 3.5 hours drive away from Sydney, and with several beaches they are a popular holiday spot.

We stayed at a friend of a friend's time share holiday village; it had lots of fun family activities, such as a cool jumping pillow (click here for a video), a swimming pool and some canoes. In this photo, Owen looks very cool in his little life jacket.

We managed to have the last of the warm weather and went to the beach and the pool a few times. In this photo you can see Nathan showing Owen the best way to spend a lazy afternoon.

H I J K....

2008-04-06T12:30:00.000+10:00

Suddenly, Owen is starting to sing in tune! It's probably because he has been practicing so much. He spends up to two hours each night singing to himself and his teddy before he finally drops off to sleep, and if we don't get him out of bed as soon as he wakes up he fits in a little more practice; so all up that makes around 14 hours per week. It's no wonder he's so tuneful when he sings now. He seems to break out in song at all hours of the day - during breakfast, lunch, dinner, playing with his toys, sitting on the toilet, in the car and walking down the street - you get the idea.

What does he sing we hear you ask? Well, his repertoire is quite extensive! Every nursery rhyme you can think of, the alphabet song (a particular favourite of his), Happy Birthday to you, songs from The Wiggles. For example, from the time we walked from a shop in a shopping centre to the car Owen sang, 'Hot Potato' and 'Fruit Salad' from The Wiggles as well as Five Little Ducks and Happy Birthday.

Here is a video of Owen singing the alphabet song. Actually, he is helping the turtle to sing it; you can tell this if you listen closely right at the end.

For the americans - yes, it is true. We say Ex, why, zed; not Ex, why, zee. Any yes, we know, it doesn't rhyme.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-05T09:53:00.000+11:00

Well, after a bit of a downer for Christmas (see previous post), new year was alot better. Owen got the all clear from the doctor to break quarantine, and to celebrate, the family went to the beach. This was the first time Owen actually got in the water at the beach, and here are a few photos. Owen loved it, and didn't want to leave.

That evening we kept to Owen's normal routine - in bed at 7:30. At around 9pm, we were very surprised to hear Owen singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and his teddy. Here's a video of him singing this song at a more normal hour (keep watching for the "hiccup hooray!" at the end). After a bit of thinking, we worked it out. There were quite a few new year's eve parties in the neighbouring houses, which were quite loud. They must have woken him up, and reminded him of his favourite parties - birthday parties. And thus the song.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T22:05:00.000+11:00

Lets start with an update on Owen - He's now a regular 2 year old who says, "no!" a lot and likes to negotiate everything eg. Us: "Do you want a biscuit?", Owen: "TWO biscuits". Us: "Would you like some sultanas?", Owen: "FIVE sultanas" (with a grin and an affirming nod) or Us: "Let's take your temperature", Owen: "Owen do it. Owen's turn!". It's "Owen's turn" very often. He speaks reasonable well (says speech pathologist mummy) but he's discovered that other children his age don't respond much to "bike/(or other toy) please" and just tug it away or don't give it to him. He is now quite efficient at swiping a toy from someone else or just prying it from their fingers. He's also very smooth at wedging his body in between someone else and a toy in order to play with it. Unfortunately, he's such an easy going kid that more aggressive children do pick on him.

Now a couple of videos. First is Owen dancing to the wiggles again - this time as a ballet dancer! And here is a sample of what Owen sounds like in the morning when he wakes up - Nathan was trying very hard to tiptoe to the door, but Owen has very sharp hearing!

So what's been happening the past month?

It was pretty exciting for us that Jo's brother Richard made a brief visit to Sydney at the end of November. It was a surprise for the rest of the family that we had kept secret for a few months. Owen loved it - he gets to "see" Rich every now and then on Skype (once he even bossed him around - "Come back Richard... hurry up Richard" he shouted, when Richard had to leave the computer for a couple of minutes), but it's not the same as seeing him person. Here they are at the airport. People still say that Owen looks alot like Rich - what do you think now?

Richard got Owen a football top (Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles), and Owen thinks it makes him stronger!

The rest of the time (which has been very cool and wet by Sydney standards) has been dominated by the Christmas season.

Nathan's work had their Christmas party at an Indian restaurant - with a Bollywood theme! Two of his colleagues had recently had babies, and they both decided to bring them along to the party. How did they go? Well, they survived the loud Bollywood music and even managed a short sleep or two!

There have been a few Christmas Carols. First was the joint West Ryde community Carols at the local public school. Our church was one of several who organised it, and unfortunately it was absolutely pouring with rain throughout the entire evening. The following week was our church's "Carols on the Corner", where Jo played the keyboard. Jo is playing again for tonight's 11pm Christmas eve service, and for the 9am Christmas service tomorrow. Needless to say, we are a bit 'carolled-out'.

Then there's the traditional family gatherings on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (that means 2nd Christmas day if you are German). These were all organised - lunch with Jo's family on Christmas day at our house, and a clan gathering at Nathan's parents place the day after. We were really looking forward to it all, when disaster struck (ok, a small hiccough). On Christmas eve, the doctor diagnosed Owen with "hand, foot and mouth disease". In case you are wondering, this is not at all related to the animal "foot and mouth disease" that can be fatal. It's a very common viral infection in little kids - fever, rash and mouth ulcers. As a result, Owen is to be quarantined in the family residence for the next week. So no big Christmas gatherings for us this year :(

We'd like to wish everyone a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus.

Matthew 1:23 - The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel --which means, "God with us."

Floriade (Canberra)

2007-12-22T21:58:00.000+11:00

In September we visited the capital of Australia - Canberra. It takes about 3 hours to drive there from Sydney, and on the way there, we stopped at a cafe in Mittagong. We happened to sit next to some very friendly people with a very friendly dog. Owen loved the dog, but what was really funny was that Owen would obey the commands the dog owner was giving to the dog. This is a photo of Owen obeying the "sit" command. He also responded to "stay", and "lie down"!

One of the main tourist attractions in Canberra is the annual Floriade. Thousands of flower bulbs, mainly tulips, are planted in intricate designs that only become visible when they flower. The theme this year was "aussie icons", such as the iced vovo (a type of biscuit) and the hills hoist (a rotating clothes line). Here are a couple of photos of us all enjoying the the sights and smells.

The flowers can get boring after a while, but there's nothing like a Magnum ice cream to spice things up. Owen also used some of the chill time to share a drink with his friend Alysha.

This trip Owen discovered that he was big enough to climb out of his travel cot! Good fun for him, but bad news for us. How were we going to get him to go to sleep? In the end we had to post a "guard" in Owen's field of view. That was enough to keep him in his cot long enough for him to succumb to his tiredness.

Another feature of Canberra is the Cockington Green Gardens. It's a garden that features miniature buildings from around the world. Owen was most attracted to the things that moved - like this miniature train.

Two Years Old

2007-11-22T20:33:00.000+11:00

Wow, 2 months without a post. A bit embarrasing, really. Well, we can't pass Owen's 2 year milestone without a few photos and videos.

Lets start the weekend before his birthday. We had been umming and aahing about whether to baptise Owen, or simply have a dedication service (Christians have long argued about whether or not to baptise infants). Finally we decided, and on the Sunday before his birthday, Owen got baptised. He wasn't at all bothered by the water (hooray for swimming lessons!), or the attention. As soon as it was over, he ran straight off the to the back room to play with the other kids.

On Owen's actual birthday (mid week), Nathan was sick with a tummy bug and stayed in bed all day. It wasn't such a loss, as he would have otherwise been at work anyway. Owen shared a dinosaur cake with his friends at playgroup. He really loves dinosaurs, courtesy of Dorothy the (rose eating) dinosaur, one of the wiggles' ensemble characters; and the "Stomp Dino, Stomp" Play School song.

Owen joined in with gusto to sing happy birthday to himself. Happy Birthday is one of the many songs in his repertoire, and he usually follows with a slightly incorrect, but very cute "hiccup hooray".

By Saturday, Nathan was better, and the whole family went to ride on the miniature steam trains. Click here to watch. This train club is only 10 minutes walk from us, and has rides once a month. It's very popular, especially for birthday parties. No wonder - at $1 per ride, it's a bargain!

To top it off, on Sunday we took Owen on a bike ride to Eastwood. Eastwood has lots of asian grocery shops and restaurants. Here is Owen relishing a Dan (egg) Tart. MMMMmmm... a perfect end to a perfect birthday week!

A few videos to enjoy

2007-09-10T20:51:00.000+10:00

We've been putting a few videos on youtube over the past two months http://www.youtube.com/naithjo, but nothing on our blog. Here are a few links to the videos to give you a bit of on update on what's been happening with Owen recently.

First is a video of owen eating one of his new favourite foods - corn. Other recent additions to the list of motivational tools include Kiwi fruit, and his first favourite meat - chicken. For some reason he has never been a meat man until the past two weeks. Probably because he's now got a full complement of teeth.

Physically, Owen has launched himself (literally) into a new league. Here is Owen's first jump. He has also started to use some of his well practiced dance moves to charm the ladies.

Here is a taste of what Owen sounds like - including one of his not infrequent tantrums.

Western Plains Zoo (Dubbo)

2007-07-03T21:35:00.000+10:00

While we were in Germany it was interesting to note that alot of people have travelled around the world as tourists, but have hardly seen their "back yard" of local destinations. For example when we visited Prague, a very popular tourist destination in the Czech Republic, about 5 hours by train from where we were living, we were suprised that hardly any of the locals had been there. Typical comment: "Never been there, but I've heard it's nice". But it's also the same for us. When Germans told us that they've been to Australia, they talk about all these places we've never been to!

Now that we've got Owen, we'll probably do a lot more local travel than we did before, and in May we did just that. So where could we go that is 5 hours away from Sydney? We chose Dubbo.

On our way there, we stopped at a few towns. At one of them, Owen discovered Autumn leaves. Since this time, whenever he sees a leaf on the ground, he'll want to bend down, pick it up, show it to you, and tell you "LEAF!".

You get stiff sitting in the car for so long, so while we were at this particular park, Nathan decided to get some exercise. Owen was delighted!

Because we got into Dubbo so late, the easiest thing to do was get a takeaway dinner. As a result, Owen had his first taste of pizza and lasagna. Country towns are not renowned for their food. This was the worst Italian food we have ever tasted!

The main attraction at Dubbo is the Western Plains Zoo. It's quite a large zoo, and they've made an effort to avoid obtrusive fences.

Instead, they use water, hills and low fences to keep the people away from the animals (or is it to keep the animals from the people?).

They had a few life sized animal sculptures around, which made for some good photos.

There is the real thing...

But actually, Owen wasn't that interested in the live animals. He'd take notice for a few seconds, and then be much more amused by the other kids running around.

One of the really close encounters was feeding a Giraffe from a high platform. As you can see HERE, Owen was a bit scared, and was pretty keen to eat the carrot himself!

Finally, another video. We stayed in a motel in Dubbo, and because it was a strange place, Owen kept crying in the night. To avoid complaints from our neighbours (the walls are very thin), we let Owen sleep in our bed. Owen must have liked the idea of using the "big" things, and so when he got this chance, he couldn't resist.

Playland

2007-06-23T22:30:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, Nathan took Owen to Playland to meet up with the other mums and kids from our church playgroup. Playland is a cafe with lots of play equipment, where mums (and a few dads) take their bubs for an outing. It's a great idea, because full time parents can go there, let their kids wander, and meet up with their friends over coffee to have adult conversations for once.

Owen loved it! We were there for 2 hours, and Owen didn't stop the whole time.

Owen loves slides, and he spent most of his time on this slide. The main advantage of this one compared to others he's used, is that he can climb up easily without assistance. The stairs are sloped, and well sized for his little legs. That meant he could keep going without boring mum or dad, and that's exactly what he did. He must have done it more than 30 times.

There was this HUGE climbing maze in one corner. It's great for kids older than Owen, however with dad's help (a bit squashy!), Owen was able to navigate it. Here's Owen on a kind of tight rope quite high up. He's not scared at all - well, there IS a net on each side!

And finally, the highlight of the day - the BIG SLIDE. The entrance was at the top of the climbing maze, and as you can see, Owen thought it was great! Dad thought it was not bad, either.

It's a flat entry fee for the whole day, but by the end of the 2 hours, Owen decided to have a lie down in the middle of the play area. That was a sure sign he'd had enough. Into the stroller, and a few minutes later he was asleep!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2007-06-21T07:38:00.000+10:00

We had our first comment on our blog today (thanks Peter and Martina), which spurred us on to finish this blog entry. It's been slow recently, as we've had a spate of illness. First Nathan had the flu, which he promptly passed to both Jo and Owen. To add insult to injury, Owen ended up with an ear infection. We're now pretty much better, with just a few sniffles here and there. The weather here in Sydney has been very wet and windy, which doesn't help things.

Owen is 19 months old now, and you can see more and more of his personality coming through. We wonder if what we see now can give a clue as to what Owen will want to do when he gets older.

Like father, like son? Nathan is an Engineer, and Owen might have leanings this way as well. A few months ago, Jo found that the DVD RCA cables were plugged in incorrectly. She was a bit puzzled, until a few days later she found Owen trying to "fix" the cabling. What about a handyman? Owen wanted to work on his high chair after Dad had a go, as you can see here.

They say you should do something you love. If that's the case, Owen should consider being a chef. As we've mentioned previously, food has been a great motivator for Owen to learn how to speak. Even now, the majority of his words are associated with food! Food has also motivated Owen to advance physically. An incentive for Owen to learn to climb the cupboards was to be able to reach the fruit bowl! Here's Owen after a successful raid, and then a look at what's leftover. As they say, waste not, want not! Owen's not always so efficient with his food. If he doesn't like it, or if he's full, it's thrown on the floor!

Even though we haven't intentionally taught him, Owen loves to count to ten, and his favourite number seems to be "8", which he always says with gusto. Maybe his interest in numbers means he will want to be a mathemetician? He's got a way to go, through. He tends to skip "5" - maybe he wants to get to "8" more quickly.

Maybe he'll work in a call centre (although his job opportunities are limited because he's not Indian). He loves talking on the phone. With some people he's actually more talkative on the phone than in person. Here he is talking to "Paw Paw" (the chinese way of saying Grandma).

Back to Germany

2007-05-10T22:32:00.000+10:00

Nathan went back to Germany for a few weeks in April (for work). He stayed with friends from the Leipzig English Church - Jeff and Wendy. Here they are posing during a visit to a castle a few hours drive from Leipzig.

So what had changed in Leipzig? One of the first things that Nathan noticed was a new ice cream shop - "Australian Homemade Premium Ice Cream and Chocolate". Australian ice cream and chocolate? He was quite intrigued and had to find out more. The shopkeeper only spoke German, and all Nathan understood was that the founder of the chain (from the Netherlands) had an auntie who lived in "The Outback" and came up with the special ice cream recipe, whilst the chocolate comes from Belgium and has nothing to do with Australia. There is a website that doesn't explain any further. Nathan dutifully taste tested the ice cream (didn't taste particularly Australian!), and then bought a block of the chocolate. It was only on returning to Australia that he found out there is a branch of the chain in Pitt St Mall, Sydney!

Other than that, most things were the same. When not working, Nathan spent alot of time catching up with our old friends. Jo was quite jealous that she couldn't be there also.

It was "Raps" flowering season in Germany. Rapeseed oil (Canola oil is from the same family) is used in Germany to create Biodiesel. It's really taken off, and is commonly mixed with standard diesel or sold as pure biodiesel. In order to supply the oil, many of the fields around Germany have been growing Raps, and the yellow flowers are quite spectacular.

Wow, this was a completely Owen free post! Must be because he was stuck in Australia during the trip. Don't worry, the next post will make up for this. By the way, we've added the ability to post comments on our blog, as well as to have a "Feed". Not sure how well they are going to work, but please feel free to try them out.

Whistling while you work

2007-04-14T06:13:00.000+10:00

How old were you when you first learnt how to whistle? Nathan's dad whistled alot, so Nathan learnt pretty early - sometime in primary school. Jo learnt in high school, but she can't whistle a tune - except for those consisting of one note.

Well, Owen whistled before he was 17 months old. We didn't teach him - he just accidentally did it one day... and kept doing it! Want proof? Click Here to see the video. He hasn't yet overtaken his mum - he too can only whistle one note...

We're very proud that our son has learnt this important life skill so early in life. Unfortunately this isn't a sign of universal genius or precociousness. Here's Owen trying to use a spoon at 15 months.

Maybe he's just a typical male. Low on manners, big on building things (and whistling while he works). Click here to see him stacking pretty well at 14 months... and then knocking them over again. Another male trait?

Do you remember the Bumbo? Owen doesn't need it to sit up anymore, but it's fun watching his method (learnt by trial and error) of getting into it. Have a look here. Again, his persistence is evident.

Finally, a trait most interesting. The stubborn insistence that he is right. We have been trying to teach Owen to call us mummy and daddy. He's happy to call Jo mum, but as far as he can tell, everyone calles Nathan "Naith". Because he often loses the last sylable when talking (final consonant deletion is the technical term), Nathan is simply "Nay". It doesn't matter how much we tell him, he refuses to call Nathan anything else! I guess this is quite an admirable characteristic in this case - since he is, in fact, right! We don't have a video of this yet, but we hope to put one in the next post.

Harbour Bridge Walk

2007-04-13T06:50:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago, one of the most famous icons of Sydney turned 75 years old - the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To celebrate, the bridge was closed to cars, and open to pedestrians. In order to avoid overcrowding, you had to register and book a time to cross.

We walked across with our friends Fu, Christine and Alysha.

Here's Owen at one of the few times when he was willing to wear his special (free) commemorative cap.

You never know. Maybe in 75 years, this will be Owen with his own sign.

Dancing Baby, and other Owen Antics

2007-02-18T08:54:00.000+11:00

Time flies when you're having fun! Haven't gotten around to posting for over 1 month now, and what a difference a month makes! In our last post, you saw Owen taking his first tentative steps. Now, he's a speed demon!

Click here for a video of Owen pushing his German Lernlaufwagen (= learning to walk wagon).

Here's another one with Owen showing his eye-hand coordination - hitting balloons with a fly swatter. This is one of the things he learnt to do at Gymbaroo - a baby fitness centre. It's fun for the kids, but Jo says it's more like a mother fitness centre, with the (mostly) mums chasing and carrying their kids all over the place. Roger Federer watch out - we have the makings of a tennis champion here!

Owen has lots of fun at his swimming lessons. Here he is
doing an underwater torpedo or two.

Some of you will remember a craze a few years ago, where people would create computer animations of dancing babies . We don't need any animations - we've got the real thing every day! Owen loves to dance to music (he especially likes a CD of German music given to Nathan as a farewell gift by one of his German colleagues), to the movie Shall we Dance , and most of all, to the Wiggles ! Here's a sample.

His favourite pastime at the moment is climbing stairs . Up or down, it doesn't matter. Owen is showing a great deal of determination and stubborness - he'll go up and down steps continually, seemingly in an attempt to get it "just right".

With all this activity, it's no suprise that Owen occassionally falls asleep at the dinner table,

or on the floor!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T01:14:00.000+11:00

Nathan had time off between Christmas and new year, which means a week and a half break from work!

We miss the winter Christmas, but at least this year it hasn't been a scorcher like previous years - it was quite pleasant most of the time, with a bit of rain here and there. Most of the Christmas traditions in Sydney are taken from Europe, however there's one that certainly didn't come from anywhere in Europe that has snow. It's decorating your house in Christmas lights. Some people go to quite elaborate lengths and spend thousands of dollars doing up their houses, and there is a spot not far from us where the whole street is decorated. In our street there are only two serious contendors, shown here.

We know the residents of one of these houses, and they are encouraging us to join the fun. No success so far, but they have managed to persuade another of our neighbours to make a start... Maybe next year.

For Christmas, we spent lunch with Nathan's family at his parents place, and dinner with Jo's family at our house. Here's a photo of some of the relatives on Nathan's side of the family. Nathan with three of his (male) cousins, with a total of 7 sons and 1 daughter!

At our place, we played with a homemade set of Kubb. What's Kubb? It's supposed to be a viking war game that Jeff (friend in Leipzig) introduced to us at our farewell picnic. It was a great hit at the picnic especially with the kids. You throw sticks at the wooden blocks (soldiers) to knock them down (kill them).

Jo wanted to buy a set for Nathan, but someone said that it was easy and cheaper to make a set yourself. Nathan (foolishly?) decided he would take the hard route and make a set. After a few weeks of trying to get the right sized wood pieces (which he never found), buying a new saw, relearning how to be a carpenter (3 years of wood work in high school finally came in handy!) he finally did it! It was Nathan, Jo, Nessy (Jo's sister) and hubby Jack verses Jo's parents and Jack's parents. Guess who won? We won't say, because we don't want anyone to get a big head. The photo is an action shot of Jo's dad making a throw.

Between Christmas and New Year, we were quite busy. We went to the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Taronga Park Zoo. We also had a German style board games evening, which was lots of fun! Oh yeah, we went to see a movie in a cinema (Happy Feet) - our first in over 18 months!

We didn't do anything special for new years. We watched the "kids" fireworks on TV at 21:00, and went to sleep before the main event. The Sydney fireworks are more spectacular than the ones in Leipzig, but in Leipzig everyone gets front row seats. We like the Leipzig version better!

Okay, here's your Owen fix. Another video of Owen walking, but a bit more confident than last time. Unfortunately he has a painful "donk" at the end!

PS: Actually, it was the oldies who won Kubb. It wasn't a fluke either - they beat us fair and square, two games to nil!

Growing skills, growing fears... (Video)

2006-12-30T03:46:00.000+11:00

Owen has made leaps in his physical abilities over the past month or so. He can climb a couch...

As parents, this is both exciting and fear inducing. Once Owen can climb higher, it means he can fall harder! Fortunately Owen is also learning protective behaviours, such as coming off the couch feet first. But he's learning how to be more adventurous as well, such as pushing objects around in order to get a leg up for higher targets.

Owen has also managed to take a few unaided steps. These could also be described as falling in a semi-controlled way. Here's the first steps that we've managed to get on video!

Falling asleep while eating (Video)

2006-12-24T19:51:00.000+11:00

When we were travelling back to Sydney, we stayed in Toronto for about 1 week (see previous post for details). We also took this video of Owen as he fell asleep eating a hot chip.

This is a bit of an experiment to see how easy it is to put videos on our blog. If it goes well (and if we get lots of email requests for more), we'll try a few more.

One year old (part 2)

2006-11-29T08:10:00.000+11:00

After the dreadful computer crash, and with a lot of help, we got back our photos. Yay! The computer still doesn't work though :( Seems like a trip to Germany and back is not as good as a holiday if you're a computer.

So here's the photo of Owen cruising our couch. He's charging towards the camera (to grab it) while Nathan desparately tried to get a shot before he got too close.

And here's the photo of Owen's teeth. It totally changes his face! You can also see his milk moustache. Owen's been completely weaned now, and drinks cows milk from a cup.

One Year Old

2006-11-27T08:14:00.000+11:00

Owen is now one year old! Here is a photo of the family at Owen's first birthday party. The theme of the party was Lions (Löwen Owen, if you've been paying close attention to the blog), hence the cake. Owen still growles, but not so much when he's pooing. Now it's when someone (including him) burps or farts. He tries to copy the sound by growling. Owen was particularly happy in this photo - he went psycho with all the attention.

So what's new with Owen? Maybe the question should be what isn't new with Owen. As anyone with children can tell you, they change just so quickly at this age! There's no way to even remember all the major developments, let alone describe them. Here's just a few of them.

As we mentioned last post, Owen is cruising furniture. He's been crawling like a mud crab (only forwards, not sideways) for quite some time, but now he really likes to stand. The one year mark is about the average age for children to take unassisted steps, and Owen tried really hard to meet that deadline! He's been standing up with the assistance of furniture, and then letting go for a few seconds, before falling promptly down. At least he's worked out how to fall without donking his head on the hard floorboards (isn't pain a wonderful teacher?). On his first birthday he still couldn't do it, but it'll come soon. Here's a photo of him cruising the couch (photo coming - missing due to a computer crash).

Owen's gummy grin was very cute, but it's gone now, replaced rapidly with more and more teeth. First the two bottom ones came out (see photo). Then by his first birthday he had three more on the top! (Photo coming - another victim of the computer crash). With teeth has come a much greater ability to eat - even an apple! Not that he needed the encouragement. He's been an eating machine for most of his life, and is getting a little belly! In fact, food motivates him so much, that most of his first words were used to get more of the food he wants, and less of the type he doesn't like.

We mentioned before that he doesn't really play with other children. His main interaction with other kids is trying to steal their toys or maintain possession of his own. That presents a problem when his hands are full and someone else has toys in their hands. Solution? Drop the ones in your own hands to free them for an agressive takeover! Here's Owen stealing from James, a little younger.

Everyone comments on Owen's funky hair style. It's hard to capture it in a photo, but here's a good one. Owen's here with his Grandma and Great grandma, trying for the keys and mobile phone. We still haven't cut his hair, and now that it's a bit longer it doesn't stick up as much :(

Having a mum for a speechie means the pressure is on. What's his first word going to be? Contrary to what most people think, babies rarely have mum or dad as a "real" first word. They do babble "mamamamamam", but that doesn't count if they don't use it with understanding. As mentioned earlier, his first words were used during eating. The very first was "More". Very useful if mum or dad is too slow with the next spoonful! Some other early words were "No" and "car". He's getting much better at copying our words now. Even when he can't say the words, he copies our sign language. Here's an example of "uh oh!". His copying is not only for communication - here's Owen trying to turn on the TV, just like mum and dad.

Home sweet home

2006-11-10T08:30:00.000+11:00

So, after about one month back in Sydney, we've finally got around to posting about how we're settling in. It's been busy busy busy as we moved back into our old house (almost typed Haus by accident - typing or saying German words happens suprisingly often!), and moved all our stuff from storage.

One of the first things we had to do was Owen Proof the house. Why? Because he's been crawling EVERYWERE. In the last few weeks he's even started cruising furniture! [Cruising is a technical baby term for walking around while holding onto stable objects]. Owen doesn't like the measures we've been taking. Here's a photo of him "in gaol". He's helping the socks to escape - "run away, run away".

Because we're waiting for our shipment to arrive, we've had to give Owen a bath in the full sized tub. Lots of space to play with his bath toys!

But that's nothing compared to Owen's REALLY BIG bath - the local swimming pool. We've started Owen on some swimming lessons - somthing that was just a bit too hard to do in Germany. Not because there weren't any pools or lessons - rather it was organising it all in a foreign language! He doesn't look too distressed in this photo, and actually he's pretty good for his first ever swim. He did cry a bit when his head went under, though!

We left Owen's high chair in Germany, so we bought a new one here. Here it is. The Germans will recognise it as a european style wooden high chair. We couldn't help it, we've turned into Europeans!

Not really, of course. We still love lots of Aussie stuff, not least of all the yummy tropical fruit. This is our first "Real" Mango for 2 years! They have them in Germany, but they are nowhere near as nice.

Now that we are back in our house with a backyard, it's back to gardening for Nathan. Here is the first attempt to clear the veggie patch. Doesn't look like much? You should have seen it before he started. See the bin on the left? That's full of weeds!

We're already missing Germany and all things German. We went to a school fete at the German school to hear the language again and enjoy some of the food. Here's Jo eating a Bratwurst. You can tell it's not Germany because the bread roll is WAY too big. In Leipzig, the bread roll is so small it seems to be just a convenient way to hold the sausage rather than part of the meal. Rather disappointing was that there were no dishes with Quark in them. We met a couple that had spent 14 years overseas, mostly in German speaking countries. They were at the fete for the same reasons as us! Actually, we've heard quite alot of German - mostly tourists, and it's been fun to chat to them a little bit. I think they're quite surprised to see Asians in Australia speaking their mother tongue.

One rather disappointing thing is how quickly we've gotten into watching alot more TV. It makes a difference when you can choose from 5 english speaking channels. Hopefully we won't turn Owen into a couch potato - he's certainly getting the right belly for it. More about that and Owen in general in the next post...

Friends in Auckland

2006-10-28T18:04:00.000+10:00

After Toronto we visited our friends Dave and Cindy in Auckland. In writing this post we realised we didn't take ANY photos of them while we were there! Auckland felt familiar straight away. Not only driving on the left side of the road, the look of the streets and the shops, the brands for sale... Although, that said, we did feel a little funny when initially being driven from the airport and going round the round-a-bout from the left side first and doing right hand turns into the left side of the road. Jo was the only one who drove while we were in New Zealand as she was the least tainted in driving on the left side of road, having not driven at all in Germany, USA or Canada and because Nathan had a German driving licence less than a year old.

We didn't do too much in Auckland - we were pretty tired by that stage. We went into the city, crossed the harbour and enjoyed some clear, sunny weather. The weather was very inconsistent, alternating between hot and cold. Here's Jo and Owen with some extinct volcanoes in the background. Almost every hill and mountain is an extinct volcanoe, since that's how much of the land was formed.

We also went to an aquarium called Kelly Tarltons (no idea of the reason for the name). It was small compared to the Sydney Aquarium, but had a really cool freezer room where King penguins were kept. We travelled through the room in a little insulated train to see them up close.

We also went to see a bird colony - we've already forgotten the type of bird. This picture shows the birds at their nests. They are evenly spread out on the rock because if they get too close to their neighbour they get pecked. We saw some of the birds doing a courting dance, which involved rubbing necks and probablly squawking. Probably because the whole colony was squawking a racket anyway.

There were some differences from home, of course. For one, the accent is a bit funny. This is old news for all the Aussies, but for the benefit of the Germans... The New Zealanders pronounce "Bear" and "Beer" the same way. There's a commercial on TV where a customer asks the bartender "I'd like a Beer for the Bear, Bro". It sounds like "I'd like a beer for the beer, bro"

Relatives in Toronto

2006-10-21T05:59:00.000+10:00

Toronto, the land of Anne of Green Gables. We stayed with Jo's cousin and family in an old farmhouse out of town. On one of our drives they pointed out a house that looks exactly like the one used in the filming of the original Green Galbes movie.

Owen enjoyed playing with his second cousin. Actually, it was more playing next to his second cousin - he's not quite old enough to interact with other kids except to try and steal their toys.

At the farmhouse, Owen enjoyed his first (and last??) fireside bath. Even mum and dad haven't had one of those!

This rocking horse was a hit with Owen.

In this branch of our relatives there are 3 sons and 6 grandsons. With Owen, we had 7 boys running around and causing havoc. Here they all are. Owen just woke up, which is why he isn't so happy.

Jo's cousin called Canada "The land where you buy things in bulk", and we found this to be quite true! For example we could only find a packet of nappies with twice as many as normal - which was a problem because we didn't want to fill our luggage with spare nappies. On one trip to a shopping centre there was quite a stir when crowds of shoppers pushed and shoved to get hold of a bulk special. The product? Toilet paper.

Wedding in Philadelphia

2006-10-15T16:04:00.000+10:00

So, we went on our way to Philadelphia, where Jo's brother was getting married. It was a bit of an ordeal getter there, though. We flew Leipzig -> Frankfurt -> Philadelphia. When changing planes in Frankfurt to go to Philadelphia we had a 1 hour to changeover. That's normally no problem, but the systems of Lufthansa and US Airways were not sufficiently integrated and we weren't given a boarding pass in Leipzig for the Fra -> Phil leg. As a result we had to get the boarding pass in Frankfurt. Step 1 - find the US Airways checkin counter. No problem, but it took 15 minutes Step 2 - get boarding pass. Problem - the counter was still open, but the security staff for checkin had alreay left, since there was only a short time before boarding time. After a bit of confusion we were told to go through security to the gate to get our boarding pass there. Step 3 - go through security. Problem, they wouldn't let us through security unless we had a boarding pass! Time was ticking away. We managed to convince them to let us through finally. Security took ages, and one of the airline staff pushed in front of us with an elderly couple. "Sorry to do this, they might miss their plane", she said. When we asked which flight and found out it was the same flight as ours, we were a bit upset! The actual security check was very thorough. We had to remove shoes, belt, etc and were frisked. Even owen had to take his soft leather baby shoes off and the soles of his feet scanned! Step 4 - immigration (German). Problem. Owen didn't have a German visa. We had a bit of an argument with the immigration officer (in both German and English) about whether Owen needed a visa, since he was born in Germany. Nathan was tempted to say "OK, so why don't you force him to leave the country?", but thought better of it. In the end, he let us through when we pointed out our plane was about to leave. Step 5 go to gate and get boarding pass. Fine, except that we were interviewed by a panel of 3 regarding our travel plans, etc. Nathan had to show his business card to prove he had been working in Germany. And they wanted to know where Auckland was (maybe they were making sure we weren't visiting some dangerous terrorist state). Fortunately the plane was late to depart, otherwise we would have missed it.

Here's Owen's first experience of a porter - although surprisingly enough, the porter was Dad. Usually in the US, the porters are very quick to take your bags because they earn a tip, but not this time. We were quick enough to get past the porter unassisted. That's one thing we found very different in the US - tipping! Germany and Australia have similar tipping rules - 10% means you're pretty happy with everything. But there, 10% means you weren't happy, 15% is the norm and often the tip is automatcially included (at a rate of 18%). You even need to tip when you have a haircut!

Owen took it on himself to ease the tension of the groom by giving him a massage. Maybe we should have called him Sven.
The actual wedding was a bit much for Owen, and he slept for quite alot of the ceremony and the reception.

Here you can see his wedding outfit a bit better.

And here are the relaxed newlyweds the next day.

We did do a bit of sightseeing while we were there. Here is the Liberty Bell - a famous symbol of freedom (which we never knew about). To see it, we had to go through as much security as if we were going onto a plane. Owen slept through this one, too.

On our train trip "Down Town", we couldn't help thinking how backwards some things were. For all of the achievements and advancements of the USA, some things weren't very good at all. The trains were quite old, there wasn't a loudspeaker (the conductors shouted the next stop through the carriage) and the ticket system involved the conductor hole punching about 15 holes in your ticket to mark the date and type of ticket. The bits of paper punched out were allowed to fall onto the ground so that the cleaner had to come by later to clean them up!

Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei (Everything has an end, only the sausage has two)

2006-09-05T05:35:00.000+10:00

This is a German way of saying "all good things must come to an end". In case you didn't realise, the sausage is quite an important part of German culture. Here are another two German Wurst sayings with their literal translation. You might like to guess their meaning, which we've put at the end of the post.

Das ist mir Wurst = (lit) It's like a sausage to me
Es geht um die Wurst = (lit) It's all about the sausage

We have reached the end of our time in Germany now. In less than two weeks we fly to the USA (Jo's brother, Richard, is getting married there), then to Canada (Jo's cousins are there), New Zealand to see some friends, and finally back to Sydney.

How does it feel at the end of our Wochenende in Germany? It's both happy and sad. We're glad to be on our way home, but sad to leave our new friends and some of the cool things you can find in Germany.

What will we miss? In no particular order:
1) German bread rolls.
2) German beer.
3) Being able to say "The day after tomorrow" in one word (übermorgen).
4) Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)
5) Making progress with learning German
6) Herbst (Autumn for the leaves and colours)
7) Meeting with other christians at Leipzig English Church
8) The morning after a snowfall
9) Fantastic heating
10) The easy and efficient transport system
11) Living within walking distance of the city centre
12) German hospitality
13) Watching people skate on a frozen pond
14) Apple Cake
15) Walking past the Eis Cafes and knowing that you can get all sorts of ice cream desserts
16) The cobble stone streets
17) The German style windows - they open by tilting inwards and also like a door (like a 2-in-1)

What won't we miss? Also in no particular order:
1) Having to stand uncomfortably close to the person in front of us in a queue to avoid someone pushing in.
2) Sprechen Sie bitte langsam, mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut.
3) The length of the German winter.
4) That the verb always at the end is.
5) The lack of non-smoking areas in restaurants.
6) Most milk products having the "long life" taste.
7) Being around people who smoke walking anywhere in Leipzig.
8) Having to see a paediatrician for a mere routine checkup eg. Owen's weight and height.
9) Having to wait 2 and a half hours for the paediatrician for Owen's routine checkup.
10) Our bar-fridge sized fridge.
11) Having to shop every day or second day because we have a bar-fridge sized fridge.
12) Entschuldigung, ich verstehe das nicht..
13) Sharing the trams and shops with dogs (really...dogs are allowed in shops and on public transport)
14) Separating out the organic rubbish - opening the organic rubbish bin lid...oh how all the flies fly out at once....!
15) Carrying a dictionary around with us everywhere
16) The general lack of customer service
17) People smoking everywhere
18) Eating so much potato

In packing everything up, we've learnt more about the German way of doing things. One in particular sticks out. When you rent an apartment in Sydney, you usually have to give 2 or 3 weeks notice. Not in Germany - it's 3 MONTHS notice! And you can't do sensible things like give notice 3 months before the end of your lease period... you have to give notice AFTER your lease period has ended. Thus a 1 year lease actually is a 1 year and 3 month lease. To make matters worse, you can't cancel in the middle of a month. Instead, you have to cancel at the beginning of the month. If you're a few days too late, you end up paying for a month extra.

This 3 month thing isn't restricted to renting an apartment. It also applies to contracts for internet, transport, etc.
This post is a bit lacking in photos, but we don't have much time right now. Totally unrelated to the theme of this post, but who cares? Owen having a shampoo.

Those sausage sayings?
Das ist mir Wurst = It's all the same to me. Reason: If you slice up a sausage, every bit is the same as the next.
Es geht um die Wurst = It's now or never. Reason: In the past, competitions would often have a sausage as the prize. If you reach the final and are in it to win it, then it's all about the sausage!

Urlaub 4 - Wien (Vienna) and Salzburg

2006-08-23T07:30:00.000+10:00

Continuing our holiday posts...we went to Austria for a week! The land of "The Sound of Music" and Mozart. Can you hear it now..."The hills are alive...."?

Now before we go on, here's an interesting collection of signs we found in Austria. What do you think they mean? In the spirit of German driving tests, at least one of the following answers is correct, however up to all may be correct. Answer at the end of the post.
a) No smoking
b) No vehicles.
c) No dogs
d) No cyclists.
e) Bicycles may not be left unattended

So what do you do when you are in Vienna? Eat Vienna Schnitzel - of course!

The other thing to do is eat cakes. There are cake shops everywhere (called Konditorei), where we sampled a fine selection of Austrian desserts - at least 15 cakes over 7 days! Owen enjoyed helping select them, but wasn't allowed to share in eating them!

Of course you can't visit a European city and not see a church. Here is a very impressive one in the centre of the city - Stephanplatz

We did a few bus tours, though for one of them we all had a long nap. There's so many monuments, statues, historic buildings, etc that it all just washes over you and becomes a bit passe. Let's see, shall we see XYZ, or have another cake?

Vienna has been the centre of music for a long time, and it was interesting to go on a walking tour on the life of Mozart, as well as to visit the House of Music - a museum with interactive displays for the kids. One thing that they kept drumming into us - don't believe the movie Amadaus - it's got lots of historical inaccuracies.

Schonbrunn schloss is towards the edge of Vienna. A beautiful castle on huge grounds, and with a guided tour of most of the rooms - which have been set up as a museum

Salzburg, the home of the Sound of Music. This is the closest we got to a sound of music tour, thank goodness!

We visited the Salzburg fortress, which has a great view over the city. This fortress was never taken by force, and has several layers of walls built up over the years.

We also saw one of Jo's school friends Natalie, who is a musician in Salzburg.

Oh, and did you know that there are no kangaroos in Austria?

But there are digeridoos!

Despite Austria being a German speaking country, we found some strange words - mostly when we were reading the menus. The one we found most amusing was Erdapfel. Literally this means earth apple, but it's actually potato.

Answer: b, c and d. The strange thing about European traffic signs is that a red circle is the same as a red circle with a red line through it. ie not allowed. Another is that a completely empty red circle means no vehicles allowed. This can be quite confusing!

Urlaub 3 - Church weekend away, Jena, Eisenach and Wittenberg

2006-08-13T17:49:00.000+10:00

Very briefly, some of the weekend trips we've made:

1) Church Weekend Away

This was in June, but it was still quite cold at that stage. The topic of the weekend was "In Christ", and we learnt from Philippians 3 and 4. It was good to be reminded that in Christ, we shouldn't put our confidence in the "flesh", ie in what good things we can do. Rather we should put our confidence in Jesus - who gives us his own goodness (righteousness) through his death and resurrection.

The weekend had an Australian flavour, because there were 9 aussies there - in previous years there have been none. As a result, we were teaching the children how to play touch footy (we called it touch rugby to avoid confusion) and handball.

And on of the evenings we had an aussie bush dance. We had a bit of an injury toll, though. Nathan sprained his ankle playing touch, and one of the Germans sprained her ankle during the bush dance. Just reinforced for the Germans that Australia is a really dangerous place!

2) Jena and Eisenach

In July we made another trip to Thuringer - the same state as Weimar and Erfurt (Urlaub 1).

Jena is quite famous for optical instruments, and we went to the optical museum there. Here's a photo of some old glasses.

We also happened to be there while they had some lifesized dinosaur replicas in one of the shopping centres. Owen wasn't scared at all...

Eisenach has a famous castle - Wartburg. Luther stayed in this castle when he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and it was there that he made his first translation of the Bible into German. It sounds ordinary now, but at the time it was quite revolutionary, because many believed that only the priests should read the Bible and that others could only learn from it through the priests. We saw some museums with some really old bibles, which was pretty cool.

Bach was also at Eisenach, and we went to a Bach museum that had lots of old instruments of his time. Here is a photo of someone filling the bellows of a really old pipe organ.

3) Wittenberg

We made a day trip to Wittenberg when Jon visited us. It's only 1 hour away by train or car, and is famous for being the place where Luther posted his "95 thesis" against indulgences which sparked the reformation. The original church door is gone - the church was destroyed by something (fire or war, can't remember now), and was replaced with this one. It's got the 95 thesis engraved in it.

Urlaub 2 - Prag (Prague)

2006-08-09T04:37:00.000+10:00

Not long after we arrived back from our trip in Sydney we managed a long weekend in Prague.

Prague is a bit like Paris. Lots of small houses cramped against each other.

The main attraction is the cathedral and castle, which are on a hill overlooking the city. Here's a shot of the front of the cathedral. It's designed so you have to look upwards to see it - to draw your attention towards heaven. Quite impressive!

We were able to climb to the top of one of the cathedral towers. It was a very long climb up a winding, narrow staircase. It was a two way staircase but only barely wide enough. Jo was carrying Owen in her arms, and felt pressured by the people behind to keep going without a rest. 287 steps! Here's the view from the top - well earned!

Many of the buildings had pictures instead of street numbers. So you would stay at the Prancing Pony on Charles street, for example. They've put numbers on now, but some of the old pictures are still there.

The Charles bridge is one of the main tourist attractions. It's decorated with about 20 statues, and is filled with street stalls.

This one is interesting - the clock tower has a little moving display every hour. We were advised to make sure we went to see this, but not for the display itself. Rather, to see the looks of dismay and disappointment on the faces of tourists who had waited and pushed their way to the best vantage point, only to realise that something state of the art so many years ago isn't going to be able to compare to modern entertainment.

This is the "Singing fountain". The base is shaped like an inverted bell, and the water rings the bell as it hits it. This tourist attraction is very dissappointing to many people, because it gets blocked up with leaves, and nearly half the time is out of order undergoing maintenance. We were fortunate enough to hear it working, though you had to listen really hard because it's not that loud.

Strange things in Prague:
1) Sitting down next to an italian tourist couple in Prague, and chatting to them in German.
2) Asking someone for directions "Excuse me, do you speak English", and getting an aussie accent "Yeah, sure".
3) Beer is cheaper than soft drink or water. In Germany it's similar, but there is a law that says there must be a non-alcoholic drink that is cheaper than beer on the menu. They don't have that law in Prague...

Urlaub 1 (holiday) - Weimar and Erfurt

2006-07-28T04:19:00.000+10:00

It's summer now, which means holiday time all over Europe. Many countries have standard 5 or 6 weeks holidays per year, and now is the time to take it.

We've had a few trips over the past few months - a few day trips here and there, plus a few longer ones. We've meant to write some entries about them but never got around to finishing them.

To try and catch up a bit, we've got a few shortish posts.

Over the Easter weekend (we told you we are catching up!) we went with some friends, Paul and Nancy, to explore the cities of Weimar and Erfurt. They are two of the major cities in the state of Thuringer, which is one of the neighbouring states to ours (we live in Sachsen or Saxony). We travelled by train with a special weekend ticket that allows 5 adults to travel together for only 30 Euros for a whole day's travel. Bargain!

Weimar is a beautiful city with neat cobblestone streets and is full of buildings with character. After world war I, the new democratic German constitution was formed in Weimar, hence the name "Weimar Republic". Unfortunately, there were some insurmountable problems resulting from the depression and reparations payments that caused this system of government to be taken over and replaced by the Nazis. Here's one of the castles that has been added to over the years. Sometimes it seems as if almost every historical building in Europe was burnt down and rebuilt several times.

Lots of famous people lived in Weimar, including Goethe (German writer), Schiller (German writer), Liszt (musician), Nietzsche (philosopher), Cranach the elder (artist). You can visit houses they lived in and there are museums everywhere. See the narrow purple house? Cute huh?

Erfurt is a really old city. Not all of it is like this, but here's a spot which has maintained its narrow cobblestoned street. We think the groove down the middle was where the sewage flowed.

Erfurt has LOTS of churches. It's one of the cities where Luther lived and preached. Here is a photo of the church he was at.

This is the inside of a bombed out church that is now used as a museum. We're not sure if this might have been used as a set for a scene in the recent movie "Luther".

Acht Monate und in Bewegung (eight months and on the move)

2006-07-17T16:52:00.000+10:00

As they say, time flies when you're having fun, and having Owen around is certainly that! 8 months already, and there's lots of interesting things to catch you up on.

Physically

Owen is supporting himself alot better now. He can sit up by himself unaided for around 10 minutes at a time, and can even hold himself up on Dad's shoulders. This means it's really hard to hold him, as he's always wriggling around and trying to get a better view of the world. BTW, that's Jon - an Australian friend visiting us on his way through Europe.

He's also becoming more mobile, even though he isn't crawling yet. He can roll from front to back and back to front, and can cover impressive distances in an unexpectedly short time. This means we have to be even more on the lookout to make sure he doesn't do anything dangerous. In this photo, he started on the playmat in the foreground.

Owen uses his feet alot - almost as much as his hands. Sometimes when he could reach for something with either his hands or his feet, he'll opt for the feet. He's even taken to sucking his toes.

Moving around is hard work, and since we've come into summer and there's no air conditioning here, Owen's been sweating like a pig! He doesn't seem to mind it, though he's getting some heat rash on his back. In the sun he has to wear some cute sunnies and a hat - see the last post for a good photo of that.

Verbally and Socially

Owen's range of sounds has expanded a great deal over the past 2 months. He often babbles "mamamamamama" or "dadadadadada", mixed in with squeals, exclamations, raspberries, and funniest of all - growls. He started around about the time of our church camp (hopefully we'll get around to a post about that one some day), and amused everyone when he growled at rather inappropriate times - like in the middle of a bible talk, or prayer.

His growling has earned him a new nickname - Löwen Owen (Lion Owen). It's not gramatically correct, since it is 1 Löwe, 2 Löwen, but it rhymes. By the way, Löwenbräu (one of the German resturants in Sydney) means "Lions brew". In this photo, Owen's wearing his lion suit. He's also standing up with support. He really loves this, and sometimes won't let you sit him down because he gets his legs in the way!

Owen reacts much more to other people now. He's really excited when Dad comes home from work, and smiles and babbles to everyone he can. He actually hates to be away from people. When we want to put him in bed for the night, he starts screaming as soon as we THINK about leaving the room (he's good at mind reading).

While on the sleeping topic, he sometimes sleeps on his side now, and never ends up where you put him.

Fun

Owen now has a bath every day - and he really likes it. Here he is practising pouring.

Owen loves to hear us singing to him - it's one of the ways to stop him crying.

Toys - being a boy, toys that appeal to his primal instincts are good. ie anything that could be seen as a weapon. Here he is with a club and his sword.

Food

Owen has now eaten several vegetables and fruit, rice and muesli cereal, and even some meat (chicken). His favourite is pear (sweet and wet) and water (wet) - probably because of all his sweating. When he drinks he sometimes holds the cup, but he hasn't worked out that you need to tip it to get the water out.

He tries to feed himself, but it isn't very successful, unless you define success as food everywhere else except his mouth!

When he doesn't like a new food, he makes a bit of a face, but this doesn't last very long. Hunger usually wins the day. In this photo he just tried potato for the first time.

Game over

2006-07-08T06:15:00.000+10:00

Yes, it's all over for Australia, and Germany is playing for a consolation 3rd place. Owen gave his best cheers during the last Australian match against Italy. He even dressed up for the occasion.

After Australia's run ended he quickly changed into his German gear and caught the electric atmosphere in Leipzig. We were watching the game with friends at their house and Owen wanted to be really German and had a go at drinking his daddy's beer.

It was all too much for Owen, who fell asleep during the game and could not be woken by the celebrations when Germany won.

After Germany won against Argentina, Leipzig went absolutely crazy. Every driver was honking horns, flags were waving proudly everywhere and people were blowing whistles and standing through sunrooves. The atmosphere was very exciting. We're glad we could be a part of it.

Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin (Berlin, Berlin, we're going to Berlin)

2006-06-26T00:44:00.000+10:00

This is the chant often taken up by German soccer fans during the German domestic soccer tournament. The finals are carried out in Berlin, you see. During the world cup, the final is also in Berlin, so the German fans have been chanting this alot. Now that Australia is in the final 16, some of the more optimistic Aussies here have been chanting it too. Bring on the Italians!

Owen, of course, has two teams to cheer for. His country of birth, and his country of citizenship. Unfortunately it's really hard to find an australian outfit of ANY size in Leipzig, let along for a 7 month old. Not a problem for the German games, as you can see in the photo. This is Owen cheering the Australia Brazil game with one of our fellow aussies. Wouldn't it be great if Owen was cheering an Australian German world cup final?!? But who would he barrack for?? We're not losing any sleep pondering this problem, don't worry!

Here's Owen practicing his soccer skills so he can try out for a future aussie team. Or will he try and play for the Germans?

It's been quite busy in Leipzig. On Saturday was a big match between Germany and Sweden- not in Leipzig, but you can see from this photo that the big screen area was really packed. They closed the main ring road around the city because the spectators were spilling onto it, trying to get a vantage point of the screen.

The match between Argentinia and Mexico was in Leipzig, and there were lots of fans in the streets. The mexicans were more interesting with their huge hats and outfits. There were also lots of unlucky fans carrying signs "I Need Tickets". Can't show you a photo though - they were a bit camera shy. Not sure why though...

As we all get excited about Monday's (German time) match with Italy, all we have to say is... Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin!

Hagel (Hail)

2006-06-18T21:10:00.000+10:00

What is it with the weather and our time in Germany? Nathan was on his way home from work when it started hailing. It didn't seem so bad, until he received an SMS. "Both skylights have smashed".

Jo had been making some dinner when the storm started getting worse. Owen of course was wailing at the noise, and fortunately Jo abandoned dinner and took Owen to a safer spot before the sky fell. Oh dear! What a mess! Of course, rain always comes with hail, and a broken skylight doesn't keep the elements out. Poor kitchen and poor bathroom. You can't see the puddle very well, but the shards of skylight are pretty obvious - fortunately it's perspex, and won't cut.

And this is the cause. That's big hail. Not as big as some of the Sydney hail we've seen, but unheard of in Leipzig!

Of course, we weren't the only ones effected. Quite a few cars had smashed windows. Here's one of our neighbours cleaning up the mess.

And people had a hard time getting home. The hail was as thick as snow and for some reason the water didn't drain away very well. The water was a bit deeper than these cyclists expected. "Arrggh, es ist kalt!"

The next morning, it appeared as if autumn had come again - except this time the leaves were still green!

Führershein (Driving Licence)

2006-06-18T05:03:00.000+10:00

Nathan has had some fun (stress actually - it's hard to convey sarcasm in text) over the past few months getting his German driving licence. Unfortunately, if you are staying in Germany for more than 1 year, you can only use your Australian driving licence for the first 6 months.

What's involved? First a theoretical test, which is actually quite difficult. The reason is NOT that you have to take the test in German - it's translated into English. What makes it difficult is that although it is multiple choice, it is possible for 1, 2 or 3 of the possible answers to be right, and some of the questions are quite obscure.

Do you think you could pass? Here's a sampling for you. Answers below.

Q1 (4 points) What are the possible effects of hashish consumption?
a) Diminished awareness of danger
b) Increased likelihood of mistakes in assimilating information.
c) Misjudgement of speed and distance.

Q2 (4 points) A faster car overtakes you on a country road and cuts into your lane. How to you react?
a) You sound your horn and flash your headlights to point out to the other driver that he has behaved wrongly. This, at the same time, works off your anger.
b) You feel challenged and start overtaking.
c) You control your annoyance, remain cool and proceed as if you had not noticed this.

Q3 (4 points) - Why is it necessary to maintain a particularly great safe distance from vehicles in front?
a) Because otherwise wheel-spray impairs visibility. b) Because the stopping distance is greater than on a dry road.
c) Because otherwise you might react too late to puddles.

Q4 (5 points) - Which conduct is correct?
a) I must allow the yellow truck to pass.
b) I must allow the green car to proceed.
c) I may turn in front of the green car.

Q5 (4 points) - What is the maximum number of persons an employer may allow to be taken to work on the floor of a truck?
[You must provide the number].

Q6 (4 points) Your vehicle loses oil. How much drinking water can be polluted by a single drop of oil? Up to:
a) 50 litres
b) 1 litre
c) 600 litres.

Answers

Q1) A typical drug question. These are generally pretty easy. Answer - a, b and c.

Q2) A typical road rage question. Also usually easy. Answer - c.

Q3) A typical "filter out idiots" question. These questions are usually common sense, but require you to understand the attitude of the examiners. Is reacting too late to puddles a legitimate concern, or are they trying to trick you? They are quite conservative. Answer - a, b and c.

Q4) Right of way in Germany is much more complicated than Australia. One of the more difficult rules is when a priority road turns a corner. The general rules are: a) If you stay on the priority road you have right of way. b) If you are on a priority road and you turn off, you have right of way except for rule a. c) Give way to the right except for the previous rules. Answer - a and c.

Q5) There are lots of questions regarding trucks and trailers, since the standard licence allows you to pull trailers and drive up to 3.5 tonne trucks. These are generally the hardest questions. This one in particular is tricky. Did you answer "zero"? Of course you did, and of course you are wrong. The answer is 8. Crazy Germans!

Q6) Environmental driving - a big thing in Germany, where the Green party was part of the ruling coalition for many years. Some would argue that a country where you can drive at unlimited speed on the autobahn would do much more for the environment by introducing a speed limit than by trying and get its learners to change gears early, accellerate slowly and turn off your engine when waiting at a railway crossing. This particular question is one of the harder ones of this type, and the somewhat surprising answer is c.

Scoring. The standard test has 30 questions. If you get a question wrong by choosing any incorrect answer or missing any correct answer, you lose ALL the points allocated to that question. If you lose more than 10 points over the whole test, you fail. Since there were only 6 questions on this mini-test, if you got even one question wrong, then you are likely to have failed the full test.

Not surpringly, when Nathan took his theoretical test (it takes place under exam conditions with all the hopefuls taking the same exam simultaneously), over half of the applicants (mostly eager but underprepared 17 year olds) failed.

Part 2 is a practical test, where you have to show the following:
1) Environmentally aware driving (change gears so that revs never go abouve 2000 rpm).
2) Look out for cyclist whenever turning.
3) Demonstrate correct speed limits (going too slow is almost as bad as going too fast).
4) Demonstrate knowledge of right of way (if you have right of way, and you check for other cars, you lose points!).

After the test (which was carried out in German), Nathan had a tense wait to find out if he passed or not. The examiner and the driving instructor (both are present during the test, however the instructor is not allowed to talk during the test) talked at length about all the mistakes he had made, before passing him. Afterwards, the driving instructor said he was very lucky to pass, and really should have failed!

And the result? Here it is. Note the pose for the photograph - a "half profile", rather than the standard "front on" passport photo.

Fußball Feber (Football Fever)

2006-06-11T04:42:00.000+10:00

So how can you tell it's world cup time in Germany? From the merchandise, of course!

Here's some soccer dummies - not the human kind :)

Soccer nutella. We actually bought one of these.

Soccer pasta.

And even soccer bread.

How many different soccer items can you find here?

Because Leipzig is one of the venues for the matches, there's quite a buzz in the city centre. They've set up a big screen at Augustusplatz - the main square. This is quite popular and busy.

Yesterday Germany played their first game, and at Nathan's work lots of the Germans were feeling sick in their stomach with FEAR. Why? Because Germany is one of the better teams, and they are EXPECTED to do well. But soccer is a funny game, and anything can happen. We Aussies are more relaxed. Everyone expects Australia to lose (though reading the SMH, it's a lay down misere that they're going to win the tournament!), so there's no pressure.

Tomorrow, the Netherlands play Serbia-Montenegro, and we saw lots of Netherlands supporters in their orange. This was not planned, but Owen happened to be wearing orange as well. This photo is for Martijn and John.

You know the table soccer game we all played when we were kids. Remember what it was called? Fussball or Foosball, right? That's actually taken from the German way of saying football. What to the Germans call it? You'd expect "Tisch Fußball" - literally table football. Nope - it's called Kicker.

Reverse culture shock

2006-06-10T06:45:00.000+10:00

A few people have asked us if we got any reverse culture shock coming back to Australia. That's where you get used to a different culture (usually by going overseas for a while), and when you return to your original culture you find that what you used to do before no longer seems right.

The most obvious one was the language, and just how easy it was to do things when you can communicate easily with people. Actually, that's not really reverse culture shock is it? OK, so this one was reverse culture relief. You get so used to STRUGGLING every day with a different language that it's such a weight off your shoulders when you don't need to do this.

For example, in Australia Nathan ordered a fast ADSL internet connection for Jo's dad. A bit of research, a few phone calls, a bit of confusion, and ... hey, it's still complicated! It wasn't till a month after we got back to Germany that it was sorted out. Oops! Failure aside, it was still easier than in Germany, where Nathan ordered an internet connection and pay TV over the phone (there's no such thing as free to air TV, believe it or not!). The internet works, but we have no idea if it's actually an appropriate deal, and the TV was incorrect and didn't work. It took alot of help to sort out the contractural mess we had gotten ourselves into with that one!

Still, while it was wonderful to be able to understand everything and communicate easily, we still had trouble finding the English words for things at times. Sometimes the German word would come first and then a second searching for the English word....I guess that's what 9 months in a non-English speaking country does to you.

The other obvious one is driving on wrong side of the road. Yes, it's sacreledge, but driving on the left really did seem wrong for a little while! Nathan avoided driving in Australia to try to keep his right hand driving sense as much as possible. Didn't work, though. The first time he drove back in Germany, he broke 4 road rules in one 15 minute trip!

Not so obvious one was the difficulty of getting around Sydney without a car. We did have access to a car, and we drove SO MUCH! Jo did all the driving and it was really tiring as a result. Things are just so spread out in Sydney. We've become so used to living in a small city like Leipzig and feel spoilt to live within 20 minutes walk of the city centre. Here's Owen in a Sydney car seat. He hated this at first - he screamed all the way home from the airport. By the end of our time in Australia, it was one of his favourite nap spots.

Recycling. The Germans are really into recycling. We've got 4 different bins downstairs to sort our rubbish into, and there's another one down the road for glass. Most public bins have at least 3 of the options. When we were in Sydney, we didn't know what to do with our plastic bottles or organic matter. Where was the plastic recycling bin? Where does the organic stuff go? In the end we had no choice but to reluctantly throw them into the general rubbish.

Many of the glass and plastic bottles have a Pfand (deposit) which you get back when you return the bottle. And they don't just melt the bottles and make new ones - they actually clean and re-use them! Here's a collection of bottles we have currently - worth around 40c or so. If you look closely at the beer bottles you can see a wear mark - proof that these bottles have been scratching against their neighbours for many a year. It's true for the plastic bottles as well, though it's harder to see in this photo. We think it's a great idea, and it really works. Sometimes we can't work out from the label if there is a deposit - we just collect them anyway, just in case they're worth something...

Australian money - the 20c and 50c coins are so huge and heavy. It's a great thing that there are no 1c and 2c coins, though!

Sechs Monate alt, und hungrig (6 months old, and hungry)

2006-05-24T07:15:00.000+10:00

Owen turned 6 months during our Australian holiday. Here's a few milestones and developments we noticed during the trip.

During the first few days of our trip, Owen was learning how to turn over from his front to his back. He really doesn't like being on his front, however until recently he didn't know what to do to roll himself over. He managed a couple of times by chance, but usually he got stuck with his arm under his back. Here's a front and back shot of him in his stuck position. After about 2 minutes of this, he would start crying. Then one day, magically, he worked out that he had to move his arms out of the way before turning, and suddenly he was like those un-tippable toys. You put him on his front, and quick as a flash he's back on his back. Then, all through our holiday we were trying to get him to go from his back to his front. Unfortunately our families missed seeing it - it was only yesterday that he finally did it on his own!

It's a pottee, it's a seat... no, it's a Bumbo! What's a bumbo? It's a specially designed seat that allows babies to sit up even though their trunk muscles aren't yet strong enough. It does allow Owen to demonstrate his strong neck muscles, that can carry that proportionally HUGE head of his! It also allows us to take lots of cute shots of him...

One of the more exciting developments is Owen's hunger. 6 months is the recommended age for starting solids, and Owen knew it. Unfortunately for him, we decided to wait until coming back to Germany to start (better to get into the right time zone before adding another new routine). That meant our hungry little boy was mercilessly teased by seeing EVERYONE eating proper food, but none for him. He would stare intently at your spoon of whatever all the way from the bowl to your mouth, then he would imitate your chewing motions.

Finally, the time came for Owen to have his first solids. He has his own high chair, a collection of spoons and bowls, and wow does he love it! Here's a photo of Dad feeding Owen. He was so excited he wanted to feed himself!

Aaahh. That's better. Yummy yummy yummy I've got food in my tummy!

Of course, once you give an inch, they'll take a mile. "Where's my food??"

Australien (Australia)

2006-05-22T06:15:00.000+10:00

Wondering where all the posts had gone? We've been on a holiday to... Home Sweet Home!

After a few weeks of trouble trying to get back to Australia for a holiday (Owen was sick a couple of times, and Nathan's work was too busy to take time off), we finally made it. Here's Owen on his first plane trip. Doesn't look fazed? Actually, he handled it pretty well, though he didn't want to sleep much, meaning neither did we.

So what did we do in Australia? Well, it definitely wasn't one of those relaxing holidays. We ran around trying to cram in as much as possible. Most importantly, we spent most of our time introducing Owen to family and friends.

Here's Owen with his living direct forebears. Owen is the first grandchild for both of our parents, so was fought over to see who could hold him next! He's not such a novelty for Nathan's Grandma, who already had over 10 great grandchildren, but still special.

Here's Owen with some of his "real" uncles and aunties. In chinese culture, your parents friends are all uncles and aunties even if they're not related, but these ones are. See any family resemblances? Be careful - some are ring-ins by marriage.

Actually, alot of people think Owen looks like Jo's brother Richard. He wasn't in Australia during our trip, but here's an older photo of him with Owen. What do you think?

Then, we did some things we couldn't do in Leipzig.

Number one being eating good asian food! The asian food is really not very good in Leipzig. During our trip we ate Yum Cha (pictured), Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian... YUM!

Also, we went to the beach! Our original plan was to be in Australia a little earlier in the year, when the weather was warmer. Fortunately we did get a really nice day for our visit to Manly beach, but it was way too cold for a dip!

Then, all too soon, we were back on a plane to Germany. This time, Owen got a big seat (well, for a few minutes, anyway).

Fünf monaten und viel spaß (5 months and lots of fun)

2006-04-25T17:21:00.000+10:00

Owen is now 5 months old! Where did the time go? He is such a happy and smiley baby who loves a laugh.

He laughs at many different things. In this photo, Daddy was blowing the top of Owen's head and Owen thought it was the best game.

Owen is quite a wriggle pot in bed. We put him down for a nap and when we come to get him after he wakes up we find him completely perpendicular from the way we left him. Not sure what he'll do when he no longer fits widthways in his cot.

You can see how pleased he is with his efforts of getting to this position.

Owen has been developing many new skills. Mummy has been making sure he gets plenty of exposure to books. See how he can look at them by himself!

Owen loves his fingers. Look how many he can get into his mouth at once.

Frohe Ostern (Happy Easter)

2006-04-17T04:53:00.000+10:00

We hope everyone has had a great Easter break, and a good time remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus. Easter over here is pretty similar to in Sydney - quite commercialised with lots of easter eggs, easter bunnies, etc. The emphasis, though, is less on the chocolate eggs but rather the painted ones. Because it's also spring time, flowers, chicks, bunnies and budding branches feature heavily as well. Here's a photo of the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and some of the decorations.

Nathan went to something quite different this easter. At the English church, there was a Passover "Seder". This is a passover dinner as celebrated by Jews (commemorating their escape from Egypt), but of course with a Christian emphasis. For those who don't know, Jesus was crucified at Passover time (which is why Easter and Passover coincide), and the "Last Supper" was a passover meal. There are also lots of parallels between the Passover and Jesus' death (eg Jesus is often described as the "passover lamb" - referring to his death for our sins)

Here's a photo of Grit, playing the part of the Matriarch of the family and lighting the passover candles. She even put in some Hebrew, having learnt some during a 1 year trip to Israel several years ago.

Here's another photo of the handwashing ceremony.

It was quite interseting to learn about some of the passover traditions, and how they can be understood from a Christian perspective. The dinner included some lamb (of course), unleavened bread (no time to let the bread rise), bitter herbs (remembering the bitterness of slavery), and much more. It was the first time the Leipzig church has tried this, and it looks likely to turn into a yearly affair.

Echter Frühling (Real Spring)

2006-04-17T04:13:00.000+10:00

Spring is in the air... everywhere I look around! OK, it's finally come - the heavy coats are put away, buds and flowers are everywhere... it even smells like spring! We can't show you the smells, but this will have to do:

Owen enjoying the warmer weather OUTSIDE his Kinderwagen - and interested in the funny snow on the ground.

No Owen, this is a new experience for you... a white carpet on the ground that isn't freezing, and smells quite nice!

Here's Owen almost sitting up by himself, proudly showing off his new red set of wheels. We bit the bullet and bought our own kinderwagen (we had been borrowing one from a family from church, if you remember). We can use it both here and in Sydney. It's not as bulky or as heavy as a typical German pram/stroller, but solid enough to survive the rough terrain of cobblestones and potholes.

Frühling (Spring)

2006-03-19T08:06:00.000+11:00

It's supposed to be spring time by now, but unfortunately it still hasn't arrived. In fact, it was freezing again last weekend with a weekend of constant snow and temperatures in the order of minus ten degrees celcius. According to the locals, this is one of the latest winters in memory. Just our luck to get stuck with one of the coldest AND longest winters. The weather is supposed to be warming up, and everyone is predicting at most a week more cold weather, before the wonderful spring kicks in. We can’t wait!

Here's some photos from last Sunday - the snow is 5cm deep, enough to make really nice tracks with owen's snow buggy. It was enough also to make skiing a genuine alternative to walking.

Remember the ducks? We've had a few photos of them over the winter. Surprisingly, their seemingly futile effort to keep a hole in the ice was successful the whole winter. There's still a hole, and it's only going to get warmer from now on.

Cold weather is not enough to keep us away from ice cream, especially when there are visitors in town. See us with Sharon in an Eiscafe (cafe dedicated entirely to dessert - mainly ice-cream treats) trying out some Spaghetti Eis (Spaghetti Ice-cream). We also introduced her to some German board games and an assortment of German beers. Can't remember if we've had a post about German beers yet - there's Schwarz (Black) beers, Dunkel (Dark) beers, Hell (bright) beers, Pils beers, Weizen (white) beers...

Spitznamen (Nicknames)

2006-03-03T09:50:00.001+11:00

What happened to "three months"? We were a little busy, and Nathan got quite sick, so we didn't manage to post in time. Instead, we've got some photos to go with our nicknames for Owen.

Champion. This is named after Owen's favourite pose when lying on the change table - hands in the air, fists pumping, or sometimes with a "How's that!" finger.

Sneaky boy. Here is Owen, looking towards the door, hoping his parents will come running after letting out a howl. Owen doesn't like sleeping these days - it's too boring! Owen will also smile and gurgle at us when we put him to bed in the hope that we will have so much fun we'll stay with him and play. As soon as we leave, though, the crying starts! Another trick is to make cute sounds when we're all ignoring him to try and get some attention. Works every time!

4 lungs. Named by our church minister Martin after he cried his lungs out during Martin's sermon, distracting the whole service. When he really gets going he cries so loud he runs out of breath, and ends up with a beetroot face. [Photo on its way - we don't usually take photos of Owen when he's crying!].

Chunky.

Milky face. He often falls asleep during or just after eating, which usually results in some leakage...

Penguini.

Owen's Development

Note Owen's new favourite sleeping position - arms straight out rather than above his head. He's training to be a fisherman.

Owen can hold his body and head somewhat upright - stronger neck muscles! He always wants to look around, and will often try to do a 360 degree turn with his neck to follow you around the room!

Here's Owen on his tummy - arching his back and lifting his head. One time, he managed to roll himself over from his front to his back, but that's unusual. He doesn't like it so much on his tummy, and he thrashes about like a coachroach on its back - lots of effort and movement for no reward.

Owen has started grabbing things. Fingers, towels, glasses, eyes, shirt... even a toy or two. He also explores the world with his mouth - sucking on anything that comes near his face. Most of the time he combines the two, and simply sucks on his hands while simultaneously exploring his mouth with his fingers.

Owen has advanced in his piano playing skills. He now winds up to try and hit the keyboard (he's worked out that touching the keys softly doesn't work). Unfortunately with a big swing he usually misses the keyboard completely!

Owen laughs much more readily now. Often if we just laugh out loud, he'll join in the joke. Doesn't want to get left out!

German medical surprise #1. When Nathan got sick, he went to visit an "allgemein Artz", or GP. One of his German friends found the nearest one to our apartment from the Gelbe Seiten (yellow pages). After waiting 90 minutes, he found out he was actually a Homeopath. After testing his muscles, he prescribed Nathan some foul tasting herbal concoction and some Arsenic. Won't be going back there again!

Berlin

2006-02-13T08:45:00.000+11:00

Last weekend, the whole family went to Berlin. This was Owen's first time in a train, as well as Jo's first time in an ICE (Intercity Express) train. The trains here are fantastic - it took us 1.5 hours each way to travel around 150km, and there was no need to change trains. Better still we got a super saver ticket so it only cost us 45 euro return for all three of us!

Why did we go to Berlin? Well, apart from that neither Jo nor Owen had been there before, the closest Australian Embassy is there, and we had to apply in person for Owen's passport. We got there really early to beat the crowds, and lucky we did - there was no one there! I guess there aren't really that many Australians anxious to get new passports, etc. The whole process was rather painless, and we were out of there within half an hour.

There were a few more firsts. Owen stayed his first night in a hotel, and experienced his first buffet. We had a great view of the city - we were right on Alexander Platz - the centre of the eastern part of Berlin.

So what do you do when you're in Berlin for a weekend? Berlin has a relatively short history by German standards. Founded in 1237, it was an important but minor city until it became the capital of the Prussian empire in the 1700s. From the late 1800s, it became the capital of Germany, and is well known as the divided city during the cold war. We visited one of the few remaining parts of the old Berlin Wall. As it turns out, this part of the wall ran along Niederkirchner Strasse, the same address as we have in Leipzig!

Someone didn't edit the sign very well. Can you spot the Denglish (Deutsch-English)? Nathan's brain has been so Germanified that he didn't notice it until Jo pointed it out!

We also visited the famous "Checkpoint Charlie", an official crossing point of the wall, and often part of various spy stories from the cold war era. Nearby the checkpoint is the Wall Museum, which we spent a few hours in. It's quite big, and we didn't have time to look at everything. Unfortunately no pics (not allowed), but it included some different pictures of the wall over time (the GDR gradually improved it until it became nearly impenetrable), and some stories of how people escaped across it. What struck us was how much pain this divided city caused the locals. One particular picture showed a father who was working on one side of Berlin while his family lived on the other. When the wall went up - starting with just barbed wire and soldiers - he was refused passage across. The photo was of him farewelling his family across the barbed wire while a soldier looked on.

Brandenberg Gate is another must see. During the time of the wall, this historic structure was walled off, and therefore became a symbol of the divided city. It's now an impressive landmark in the middle of the united city. Despite not experiencing any of the division first hand, it's hard not to feel a bit of emotion seeing this monument free again.

We visited another museum - the German Historical Museum. Their regular display was closed because it's winter, but they had a few special exhibits. One was on the "Huguenot Migration" to Germany. We thought this would be really boring, but actually it was quite educational. The Huguenots were french protestants who fled France because of persecution by the french kings (who favoured Catholicism because it gave them more power - apologies to any historians out there for this vastly simplified analysis). The exhibit talked about the refugees' background, and what happened when they went to other countries, including Germany. The other exhibit was about migration in general. Recently Germany has been struggling over the issue of immigration (sound familiar?), and the creators of the exhibit wanted to show that actually it wasn't a new thing. Each display explained one of the many migrations into Germany over the centuries. There was a third exhibit, but we didn't have time to see it. Oh, and it all only cost 2 euros per adult for admission! Bargain!

We saw a few more historical buildings, etc - but only from the outside. We won't bore you with pictures - if you weren't there, they aren't that exciting. One really cool thing we saw (of no historical value) was a lifesized "fussball" table with giant "Berlin Bears" as the players. It was strictly one person per bar, as those bears were heavy!

German delicacies #1.
Scene 1.
Nathan: Hey! I just saw someone spread what looked like raw mince meat on a piece of bread and eat it! She gave some to her son as well!
Jo: Yuck!
Nathan: It must be some kind of smoked meat.

Scene 2. Supermarket.
Nathan: Hey, they're giving out free samples of sausages. I'm going to try it!
Nathan (later): Hmmm. It looks like raw mincemeat. Must be the same stuff that mum ate the other day. Tastes OK, though.
Jo: Yuck!

Scene 3. Nathan at work.
Nathan to German colleagues: Hey, do you guys know of some sausage that looks like raw mincemeat inside?
Colleague: It IS raw mince meat!
Nathan: Oh...
Colleague: You can make it yourself. Just buy some minced meat from the supermarket, add some salt and herbs, spread it on bread, and eat it! Delicious!

Er ist jetzt Australier (He is now an Australian)

2006-01-28T07:00:00.000+11:00

Meat pies, lamingtons, anzac biscuits and Tim Tams...this is how we ate on Australia Day. Unfortunately Nathan didn't get a holiday :(

We had further reason to celebrate - Owen is finally an Australian Citizen. Since many of you have asked, Owen cannot get German citizenship because we are not German citizens. He could get it if we stay here for 8 years (as if!), and for the privelege he would have to relinquish his Australian citizenship - Germany does not allow dual citizenship.

When Owen's birth was registered, the German government considered him Australian, but up until 19 January, 2006, he wasn't considered so by the Australian government. Owen had to apply for Australian citizenship by descent, because he was not born on Australian soil. This required him to have a birth certificate from the Germans, which took about 1 month, then the embassy took over a month to process his application. So Owen was officially a citizen of no country for over 2 months. Fortunately we didn't plan a trip back to Australia during this time, or he would have been kept in a detention centre as an illegal immigrant!

We have thrown in a few more photos of Owen for good measure. First is a father-son penguin imitation.

Next is a comparison of their feet. It never ceases to amaze us just how tiny Owen's features are.

Not only are his feet small, but his fingers too. Here, Nathan is giving Owen a piano lesson. (The keyboard isn't ours - we have borrowed it.)

Even though he's little, you can get an idea of how much he's filling out. This is Owen in his muscle singlet.

In German, the country Australia is called "Australien", and an Australian is "ein Australier". It's pronounced almost exactly the opposite. So it's a bit strange when we feel like we are saying (in German) "I'm Australia", or "I come from Australian".

So bibbert Deutschland (This is how Germany bibbers)

2006-01-27T08:15:00.000+11:00

This was the title of a temperature map of Germany in one of the popular newspapers. Our dictionary translates the German word "Bibbern" as "jitters". A better way to describe this is "the thing you do when it's really cold". A bit like shivering but including a bit of "brrrr".

So why is Germany bibbering? Because of -20 degrees celcius! This is unusually cold for Germany, but not the coldest it can get. Fortunately we only got this in the night, so the mornings were a toasty -14C. For those who haven't yet experienced this, any exposed part of your body stings from the cold, but also gets numbed. Gloves and mittens don't work any more (though it's better to have them than not), and your skin really dries out alot. Just spending time outside seems to exhaust you, so that you feel like staying home, having a hot drink and a sleep under the doona.

Jo's brother Richard and his fiancee Michele were here to enjoy the weather. They are living in Philidelphia, so it wasn't a shock at all for them. Here's a photo of them with Owen, in an outfit they gave him.

On Sunday we braved the cold to go to Church. On the way home we stopped by our trusty pond, which was still (not surprisingly) frozen over. Here's a picture of Richard under the bridge. We were more adventerous this time, since the ice had had more time and colder temperatures to become really hard. It's fun to take a run-off and slide on the ice. You've got to be careful though that you don't take a tumble!

Owen had a really fun time with his Uncle. Richard somehow managed to get him to laugh out loud lots during the visit. Owen will miss him, though he laughs with Jo too. Nathan must be too boring - Owen only smiles at him.

Richard also started teaching Owen how to rap. Yo brother!

Did you know that you have to pay to go to a public toilet in Germany (actually throughout most of europe)? At the main train station, you have to pay 60c for a "Pissoir", and €1.10 for "Toilette". I hadn't noticed this until Richard took this photo - just in case you don't understand the words, there's helpful pictures to guide you to the right turnstile. Girls only get the expensive option.

In the same newspaper with the bibbering map, there was some interesting info and advice about cold weather. Here's a translation for your education:
0C. Water freezes. Disk brakes freeze. Door locks freeze shut.
-5C. Elephants and african antelope can get frozen ears. The reason - poor circulation.
-10C. Remove piercings from your face. Metal transfers cold readily - you can quickly get frostbite. [This is quite important advice, facial piercings are relatively popular here].
-12C. If you leave beer on the balcony, there is a danger of explosion. At -3C, your beer will already go flat!
-14.5C. Hedgehogs change their metabolism and go into a winter ridgidity.
-18C. Bacteria and mold have no chance. Meat doesn't go off at all.
-20C. The welded joints of the train tracks become brittle and start to tear apart.
-22C. Diesel petrol becomes gluggy. Normal petrol is no problem.
-24.5C. Rechargeable batteries, videocameras and digital cameras give up after 5 minutes.
-30C. Breathing becomes an adventure. Nosewings (nostrils??) can easily freeze together with each breath.
-32C. Car radiators with normal anti-freeze can burst.
-40C. Your eyelashes freeze together from the tear fluid.
-45.8C. Coldest temperature ever measured in Germany. 25th January 2002 at the "Funtensea".
-88.3C. Coldest temperature ever measured in the world. South pole.
-273.15C. Absolute zero. You can't get any colder. All atoms are still.

Der zweite Monat (The second month)

2006-01-16T09:52:00.000+11:00

Owen is now two months old! What did he get as a present? Firstly, a visit to a genuine German Solarium! This is important to keep up his vitamin D levels, but you can't go for free very often. It's a popular pastime for Germans to go and get a fake tan at a solarium. One German explained to Nathan, after coming to work with a tan, "It makes you feel good". Our Owen's not going to get depressed!

Next, Owen got a new bed! Look at how big he is now in his old bassinet, and how small he looks in his new cot!

He also got a visit to a frozen pond - quite a novelty for the whole family! This is the same pond you've seen many times in our various photos - in Johanna park. Here's Nathan standing on the surface. We didn't dare let Jo stand on it, because if Nathan was to fall through the ice, at least Owen would still get fed - we're responsible parents now, and have to think of our boy! In the background you can see someone ice skating. We guessed that if the locals are ice skating, it should be safe.

Here are the ducks and other water birds. They've still managed to keep their access to the water, but their long channel has turned into a small hole. Looks like they're fighting a losing battle. Actually, we're not sure why they bother - that water would be close to 0 degrees celcius - but they don't seem to mind.

Now a few more shots of Owen. First is Owen with his nonchalant look - hands in pockets with not a care in the world.

Here's SnuggleOwen, the less well know gumnut baby.

And finally, a shot of Owen with his latest trick. He's discovered his own hand. He spends several minutes every waketime examining his right hand with keen interest - right before putting it in his mouth. Slurp slurp!

Heilige Drei Könige (Three Kings Day)

2006-01-13T08:34:00.000+11:00

In Germany, the 6th January (the 12th day of Christmas) is called the Three Kings day. It's supposed to be when the Three Kings visited baby Jesus to give him gifts of Gold, Frankensense and Myrrh. Of course, those who have read the account carefully would know that we don't know how many kings came, and that they probably arrived over a year after Jesus was born. Amazingly enough, it's actually a public holiday in some states - including the one where Nathan works.

On the 6th, you're supposed to take down your Christmas decorations and tree. We didn't have a tree for Christmas, but we were lent a small one on Boxing day, which Jo decorated.

Here's a photo of Owen in his "Sunday Best". We managed to put together a perfectly matching set of clothes, right down to the socks!

Owen's Development
We've really noticed how much Owen has changed and grown since his birth. It's hard to show in pictures, but here's an attempt.

Firstly, he's really put on weight - both in length and chunkyness. Check out the thunder thighs!

He's starting to get some hand-eye coordination. Here he is with a his little friends. He likes to stare at them, and will occassionally send them spinning with a well-aimed swipe. We tried to get an action shot, but this was the best we could do.

He's even starting to use sign-language to communicate. We've been signing "food" to him and when he's hungry, he makes this sign (tips of fingers together, touching chin). It's not exactly right, but he is quite consistent with it - he only does it when he is hungry. Of course, the other explanation is that he's "fisting" - trying to eat his hand when he's hungry. Doesn't matter to us - we just tell him he's a very clever boy!

No matter how clever he is, just after he's had a good feed, he tends to space out - perfectly content with life.

Silvester (New Years Eve)

2006-01-06T09:20:00.000+11:00

They have a special name for New Years Eve here - Silvester. So far, none of the Germans we have asked can explain why it's called that.

There's a tradition here (of at least 40 years), of watching a short british comedy sketch called "Dinner for One". It's played directly in English (ie not dubbed into German, as the majority of English language shows are), and it seems that every TV station plays it at least once during the evening, but each at a different time. That means everyone has a chance to watch it, no matter what their plans for the evening! Nathan forced Jo and Jo's parents to watch it "to take part in the German tradition". We weren't very impressed, and have trouble working out exactly why this tradition exists!

In Germany, anyone is allowed to use fireworks on New Years Eve. It's the one day of the year when you do not need a licence to buy and let off fireworks. All the shops were filled with cheap fireworks, and it seems that every man and his dog bought some. We didn't for two reasons - we couldn't be bothered, since it would have been too much effort with Owen, and when he was younger Nathan had a near miss with a firework that skimmed his face, dangerously close to his eyes. Despite not taking direct part, we were treated to a free viewing of fireworks at midnight, that lasted for well over half an hour. The sheer number of fireworks that were used meant that simply looking out the window (we do NOT have a great view of the city) was enough to rival front row seats at the Sydney fireworks... OK, that's an exagerration, but it was not too shabby. Unfortunately, photos of fireworks don't come out very well, but here's one anyway.

At midnight, all you could hear was explosion after explosion and for as far as the eye could see, there were fireworks everywhere. It seemed absolutely crazy! Some were in our street, the next street, from balconies across the road, every building for the next 10 blocks in every direction....you get the idea.

We haven't had any close up shots of Owen recently, so here's a few. First is one showing him getting close to outgrowing his bassinet.

And here's one of Owen in the bath.

Here's Owen in some home made booties and mutze (beanie). The colours were very thoughtfully chosen by Jenny to match Nathan's NRL team - the Tigers!.

In the few days before Silvester, there was even more snow. Here's Jo's dad having some fun.

And here's a BIG snow man. We didn't make this one - we don't have the skill and experience of native born Germans!

Some kids tobogganing down one of the few hills in Leipzig.

2. Weihnachstag (Boxing Day)

2006-01-02T08:39:00.000+11:00

Over here, Boxing day is called the 2nd Christmas day. We had a heavy snow fall on the evening of Christmas day, so Boxing Day was beautifully white!

So we went out to Johanna park again, but this time with Owen in a baby carrier so he could more easily get out and about and actually experience the winter air.

The lake (pond) was starting to freeze over. The ducks kept a channel open by continuously swimming back and forth, but we're told they will migrate once they can't access the water any more.

Vera made a little snow man for Owen - his first ever!

In the afternoon, Nathan went to visit a family we know from Church. He played Niagara with the parents and two older kids, and saw their fully decorated REAL Christmas tree. The decorations included lighted candles, which seems a little dangerous to us!

In the last post, we forgot to include this photo. At the christmas markets, you can buy the lebkuchen hearts with tacky messages on them. We bought Owen this one - it means "for my treasure".

Important language tip: Beware of Falsche Freunde (False Friends). This is a phrase used to describe words that sound the same in English and German, but actually have very different meanings. They can get you into trouble if you don't realise! Some examples. Sensible in German means sensitive in English. Bekommen in German means receive/get in English. Gift in German means poison in English. Kontrollieren in German means check in English.

Real life examples (edited for clarity) of false friend mistakes:
1) I'm worried about this manufacturing process - it is very sensible.
2) He becomes a computer tomorrow.
3) Customs officer (in German): What is in your bags? Traveller: Es gibt nur Gifts (There's only poison). One sure way to delay your exit!
4) Tomorrow morning we will control Owen's blood.

Frohe Weihnachten (Merry Christmas)

2006-01-01T04:30:00.000+11:00

This year, since we have been a little busy with Owen and visitors and due to the distance and astronomical prices of postage to Australia, we are doing our Christmas card as a post here. Normally Jo would be revelling in making many many Christmas cards by hand and doing her best to get Nathan to write in some of them or at least sign them... not so this year (Nathan is rather glad!).

We are sorry this is not individual and personal this year and also that it is very late.

May you remember the real meaning of Christmas, the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth as a baby. We hope that the new year sees you tackling each day with renewed energy and living each day with hope.

We enjoyed Christmas with Jo's parents and our very good friend, Vera. Jeff and Wendy (here from America for 2 years - we know from church) also joined us for Christmas lunch after we all attended the Christmas service at church in the morning. We could enjoy hot food without sweltering, unlike our friends and families in Sydney. It snowed very late on Christmas night so we actually did have a white Christmas after all.

After lunch, we played a game of "Niagara". It's a new board game that won the German "Spiel des Jahres 2005" (Game of the Year 2005). Here's a photo of us with Jeff and Wendy just after we finished. It's a five player game, and Owen won. Only joking, Vera was the other player, but she's taking the photo.

In the evening were ate leftovers and opened our presents. I know - we said we would do this on Christmas Eve, but we didn't get around to it. Here's a photo of all of us with a selection of the Christmas gifts. Vera is taking the shot again.
Here's proof Vera was really there.

If you've got reindeer antlers and a baby, then it's inevitable....

Weihnachten in Deutschland (Christmas in Germany)

2005-12-24T07:36:00.000+11:00

Christmas in Germany is quite different from that in Sydney. For a start, there's the obvious difference - it's Winter here, so we are much more likely to have a white Christmas (although it's looking only 50/50 at the moment). In addition, there are a large number of Christmas traditions here that are quite novel to us. Despite the fact that many of the traditions are more Christian than secular (santa has a much lower profile over here), this reflects a deep history of Christianity rather than a broad commitment to Christ, and many of the traditions are carried out with no reference to Jesus - much like in Sydney. We've decided to follow as many of the traditions as possible so we can enhance our German experience.

Advent

This is the first difference. Although Advent is often written in our Australian diaries, we've never taken much notice of it, and only recently found out what it meant. We think some churches in Australia observe it, but it is definitely not built into the traditions and calendar of the country as a whole. For those who don't know, Advent means "coming". The four Sundays before Christmas are called 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Advent. These names are sometimes used to refer to these days without giving the normal date. For example, a movie can be advertised as "8:15pm on 1st Advent".

The idea of Advent is that we wait for the coming of Jesus - both looking backwards to his coming as a baby, and looking forward to his return in the future. All Christians should in this sense be Advent people - always looking forward to his coming and being prepared.

One tradition of Advent is the Adventkranz (Advent wreath). This is a wreath made of some evergreen plant with four candles in it. Each advent Sunday, another candle is lit. ie one is lit on 1st Advent, two are lit on 2nd Advent etc. The candle flames that grow brighter each week signify the coming of Jesus (in 1 John 8:12 Jesus says "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"), and are brightest just before Christmas, when he finally arrives. Here is a photo of us on 3rd Advent with our first ever Adventskranz.

Another Advent tradition here is the Adventskalendar (Advent Calendar). Each day from the 1st to 24th of December, you open a door in the calendar to reveal a little surprise (eg chocolate). We're not exactly sure how it fits with the Advent idea, but probably it is building expectation for receiving God's gift of Jesus. You may have seen or had these in Sydney, but they are not so common. In the picture you can see a HUGE adventskalendar with Christmas displays that look over the Christmas markets. Half the fun is trying to find today's number which is harder than it seems.

Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)

One really fun aspect of Christmas here is the Weihnachtsmarkt. Little wooden stalls are set up in the city centre, and sell christmas food, drink and craft. Here is a really nice photo of the markets just after some snow. You can see maybe 5 huts here. The complete markt is spread throughout the city centre, and would number close to 100 huts.

Here is Nathan drinking one of the many Christmas drinks. The common denominator in these drinks is that they are all hot. Some of the varieties include 1) Glühwein - a hot, spiced, sweet red wine. Quite nice. 2) Feurzangenbowle (flaming tongues of fire) - similar to Glühwein, except you light a rum soaked sugar cube over the drink so that flavoured caramalised sugar mixes into the drink. Novelty, but tastes OK. 3) Eierpunsch - mixture of raw eggs and some kind of strong alcohol. Too strong - could hardly finish it 4) Kinderpunsch (childrens punch) - hot spiced fruity drink so the children don't feel left out. Keeps you warm but otherwise not that exciting. The drinks are served in several kinds of interesting cups, which we have kept as souveniers (there is a deposit that you lose, though).

Here's Jo's mum at a stall selling chocolate coated fruit. These were a real hit with us - the fruit is really good quality, despite being hidden by the chocolate (the stalls must rely on repeat business), and who can argue with chocolate? In her hand is krappelchen - best way to describe what they look and taste like is sugar coated donut holes (but shaped like little pillows).

One of our good friends Vera is visiting us for Christmas and New Year, and caught the last two days of the markets. Here she is enjoying a chocolate coated pear.

Geschenke (presents).

Another difference here is when you receive Christmas gifts. There's at least three different times a child could expect to receive something. Before December, an Adventskalendar, which is actually 24 little presents in one. On the night before the 6th January (Nikolaustag - Saint Nicholas Day), you leave your shoes on the window sill, and Saint Nick puts presents in them overnight. On the 24th December - Weihnachten - usually after dinner, you open your Christmas presents. On the 25th December - Weihnachtstag - you don't get any presents. This year, we're going to open our presents on 24th. Though when you take into account the time zone difference, it will actually be the 25th in Sydney anyway.

Here is a picture of Owen's socks (He doesn't have any shoes yet!) on the window sill. The socks were made by a friend from our German classes we took in Sydney. They're green and gold so Owen can support the aussies in the soccer world cup!

Important German Word: -chen. Any word ending in chen means a small version of what preceeds it. For example:

1) Gummibärchen = little gummy bear. For those who are old enough to remember them, they came from Germany!
2) Ampelmannchen = little traffic light person (see post on 9th Sept, 2005).
3) Brotchen = little bread = bread roll.
4) Schlösschen = little castle

For all you out there with the surname Chen, be aware that when you introduce yourself to a German, they may have a quiet little chuckle when you introduce yourself as "little John", for example.

Ein Monat (one month)

2005-12-15T09:38:00.000+11:00

Time has just flown by, and Owen is now one month old! Today we present to you a typical Owen cycle (illustrated), which usually lasts between 2.5 and 4 hours.

Here is Owen looking peaceful. If he manages to get to sleep (around half the times he is supposed to), he sleeps quite soundly.

When he just wakes up, he often looks a little puzzled, but that usually doesn't last long!

Pretty soon, the crying starts.

Here is one of our favourite looks - eager anticipation. Here Owen has woken up hungry, and has just been swaddled. His young mind has worked out that those two in combination are a sure sign that he will soon get fed.

After feeding (sorry, this is a G rated site!), Owen is usually in a good mood. Here he is sharing a secret wink with us. The nappy change is during or just after feeding (see previous post).

We try to have some kind of activity time after eating (according to one of the many theories we've been told, this is supposed to help with sleeping patterns). One activity is bath time. Here is Owen being dried after his Daddy gave him a bath. It was Daddy's first try at bathing, and was a little scary for all the males involved. How exactly does one keep a baby from falling under the water when he's wriggling around, and you've only got him by one hand because you're trying to wash him with the other???

Talking to Owen is supposed to help his speech (no, it's not too early - and this comes from a Paediatric Speech Pathologist). Here's a "what are you babbling on about?" look.

If we've got Owen on a good day, he'll bring out the charm and make us feel like we aren't making a total mess of this parent thing... with a SMILE!

Then, it's off to sleep, and the cycle starts again.

Wickeln (Changing nappies)

2005-12-06T09:15:00.000+11:00

You might have noticed that the posts have slowed down over the past few weeks, and that your emails have gone unanswered. There's a good reason for that - we've been quite busy looking after Owen.

Here is a photo of Owen surrounded by nappies from a nappy tree present from his Uncle Richard and Aunty Michele. Windeln (nappies) are a recurring theme in our lives right now, along with stillen (breast feeding), weinen (crying) and if we are having a really good day, schlafen (sleeping). The present was very appropriate - with 59 nappies. We've almost used them up in just over a week. Yep, that's right, that's no typo. It's about 8 nappies A DAY!

Here is Nathan changing Owen's nappy. Owen is getting really good at being changed now. When it's time to take off his jump suit, a simple tug on the feet, and Owen bends his legs so that they come out of the suit. After that, he obligingly straightens his legs to make it easier to lift him out of his dirty nappy, clean his bottom and put the new nappy on.

For those who have not had the privilege of changing numerous nappies, the key performance indicators (KPI's) are:
Time between one nappy off and a new nappy on (2s). This must be kept low to minimise the chance of surprise (and uncontained) outflows.
Nappy location (waist). Too high, and Owen is uncomfortable, too low and he leaks (YUK!).
Time outside of jump suit (1.5 minutes): Longer and Owen gets too cold.
Maximum bum tilt (25 degrees): More than this increases the probability of spülen (vomit).

Er ist suß. Er ist zu niedlich! (He is sweet. He is so cute!)

2005-12-06T09:00:00.000+11:00

Ok. Back to Owen. We know that you may not be so interested in our anecdotes of life here in Leipzig and would rather see some pics of our beautiful boy. This post is entirely of Owen Matthias. We think he is the cutest baby in the world!

First, a few shots of Owen by himself. He has had some newborn Acne, which has pretty much cleared up now.

And some shots of Owen with some of his family - Mum, Grandma, Dad.

And now, taking our cue from the sound of music, here are the Chang family dancers!

Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, nur die falsche Kleidung (There's no such thing as terrible weather - only the wrong clothing)

2005-11-30T07:00:00.000+11:00

This is a German saying that Nathan thinks is quite cute. It's true, though, that good clothes make a huge difference to your experience of the German winter.

Actually, it's not officially winter yet, even though we've had our first snow. It came one morning while Jo and Owen were still at the hospital, though not enough to whiten the road. Since then we've had much more, and boy is it cold! Here are a couple of photos from just outside our apartment. The snow hasn't persisted, and right now it's melted away, though we have been getting a little bit more every few days.

For those who already live in these chilly northern hemisphere climates, yeah we know...we have been told that we haven't experienced "winter" yet. For those Aussies reading this, it IS cold! We've shown you some photos of Owen's Kinderwagen from the outside, now look what's inside! No wonder you can't see him under the thick outer capsule, sheepskin lining, blankets and warm clothes!

Finally, a photo of Owen in Johanna Park after his first visit to Church. Note the warm clothing of Nathan and Jo - thick heavy overcoats, scarf, beanie and gloves. Nathan recently bought some Winterschuhe (winter shoes), which are doing a good job on his feet, but his super duper Kathmandu windproof gloves don't stop his fingers from feeling like they're going to fall off!

Endlich nach Hause (Finally home)

2005-11-23T07:00:00.000+11:00

Owen was disappointed that he had to stay in the hospital for one more day. He made up for it, however, when we came home on Monday at around lunch time. Here are some of the highlights of the past two days, with many firsts!

His first German clothing. The weather is quite cold now, as evidenced by snow, hail and frost on the car windows. Today (Tuesday) it was 0.5C in the morning. All the Australian clothes Owen had recieved as presents wouldn't cut it "on the outside", so to ensure Owen had a pleasant trip home, we bought some local warm clothes. Here's a photo of Owen dressed as a local. It's a little big for him, but it does the job. It's true that in the hospital he was wearing german clothes, but these were the standard hospital clothes, and not his own. This explains his strange fashion sense to those who commented on such things.

First time in an Autositz. The car trip home was uneventful. Owen was peaceful, since we fed him just before leaving, and didn't seem to mind the cold or the moving car. Here you can see him comfortably wrapped up and ready to go.

First time in own kinderbett. Owen has now tried out his kinderbett, several times in fact. He doesn't look happy here, but it's now one of his favourite places (when he's not feeding, of course!).

First ride in his kinderwagen. We visited the doctor and had to take a tram through the cold weather. You'll be pleased to know that the doctor was very pleased with Owen's progress, and didn't even bother to do a blood test for the jaundice since it had so obviously stabilised. Sorry you can't see Owen - he's hiding from the cold and wouldn't come out. Not too surprising - we would have stayed indoors ourselves if we could! The kinderwagen has a very bumpy ride over the cobblestones, despite the suspension, but Owen didn't seem to mind it at all.

First bath - that look is a look of surprise and wonder, as he experiences the strange sensation of floating in warm water - a little like back in the womb, perhaps? He really enjoyed his bath, though it was pretty cold when he came out!

First night at home - Finally, the expanded family is together at home. Jo and Owen have now introduced Nathan to the night time feeds, and the disruption to sleep it causes. It's bed time for the whole family if we are going to get through another one intact!

Zurück mit Mama (Back with mummy)

2005-11-20T08:28:00.000+11:00

I’ve been having photo therapy in the "Kinder intensiv station" (children’s intensive care ward) for the last 2 days and nights. They had to go and get Mummy every time I was hungry and even had to wake her up in the night. It’s pretty exhausting sleeping under the lights, and I get dehydrated a fair bit. Fortunately the jaundice is going away, and I’m getting a lot more energy to drink mummy’s milk. Dad says that I’m sucking like a champion! Mum says "ouch!". My current problem is that I am so hungry that I gulp too quickly, and I get uncomfortable until I can burp. You saw a photo of me yesterday, here's another one with my daddy. You see all the wires coming out from me? They're to monitor my heart rate, oxygen levels and temperature. My dad is an engineer, and he really liked all the gadgets. There were machines all around me, and they kept going "ping"! Do you like my cute hat? It's a bit big for me, and it covers my eyes. Not very practical if you ask me.

This morning I got to move back to Mummy’s room so we can room in together. They brought in a special bed just for me that is different from the one I had before. This bed looks like an aquarium for babies where there are porthole windows that Mummy and Daddy can touch me through. It also has a special heater to keep me warm because I have to "fake sun bake" in the nuddy. Here’s a photo of me in my aquarium bed next to mummy. See the fake sun over my head? I've only ever seen it off - as my silly hat is covering my eyes. If you look really closely, you can see that I'm on my tummy. They said I need an all-round tan.

After a day of baking in mummy’s room, my blood test results were good, and tonight I’m allowed to stay in my normal bed. I’m so excited that I will be able to call my mum at any hour of the night, and she will be there within a few seconds! Tomorrow morning I’ve got to have another blood test (my poor feet have pin pricks all over them now!), and if that looks OK, then I’ll be allowed to go home and see my very own room.

Mummy and Daddy think I sleep the way they do. Here’s a photo of me and my dad sleeping on our backs. Can you tell who is who? Yes, I know, it's a dead giveaway. Daddy has slightly greener eyes.

Here’s a photo of me sleeping on my side. That's mum holding me, but she says she sleeps like that too!

BTW, this is my first post on this blog site. I’d like to thank my editors for fixing up my mistakes. I have been hearing a lot of German because all the nurses talk to me in German and so "Mein Englisch ist nicht so gut". That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Actually, I'm quite impressed with how well mummy and daddy can interperet my speech. They know my hungry cry, my need a change cry, my burp me cry and my tired cry. Well, I think they understand. Usually they do what I want, though sometimes they get the order wrong. I’d also like to thank my mom and dad - they really love me heaps, and without them I wouldn’t be the baby I am today. Thanks also to everyone who gave me a present. So far I have only tried on my little white beanie hat with a yellow duck on it. Was that from you Aunty Caro? It is sooo much better than the hospital bonnet with strings. That thing didn’t stay on right and kept twisting around. I was afraid I might strangle myself. Here’s a photo of me wearing my nice hat. You can see the other one in some of the previous posts. I'm not crying because I don't like the hat - I just need to burp. No mummy, that's not right! I said I'm hungry! Remember the signs? When my lips are vibrating and my tongue sticks out and my cry pierces the night.

Signed: Owen Matthias

Gelbe Haut (Yellow skin)

2005-11-19T07:14:00.000+11:00

The last few days have been unexpectedly different. The Jaundice had persisted and gotten worse, so they decided he needed photo therapy (fake sun). We've been offered one explanation that people with darker skin tend to get jaundice more often in the colder climates because the sun levels are so much lower than the norm where our forefathers came from. The phototherapy helps break down the chemical causing the yellow skin so it can be removed from the body. It is certainly the case here that there is not much sun! Sunrise is at 7:30 and sunset at 4:30, and the sun is very low in the sky! Add to that that the weather has been dreadful (cold and raining), it must have contributed to making the situation worse than if we were in sunny Sydney!

The phototherapy is almost continuous, only stopping to feed him every few hours. It also takes a few days to stabilise the jaundice at acceptable levels. As a result, we have been very disappointed to have to stay at the hospital for at least 4 days longer AND we hardly get to hold and play with Owen. During the therapy he mostly just lies there sleeping. When he's feeding, it's not the same either, as he has various sensors and a drip attached and we have to be careful not to pull anything out. We've found a cultural annoyance during all of this - the German doctors don't actually tell you what is happening unless you ask them. We've often had blood tests, and waited forever for the results and explanations of what is happening. It's only several hours later when we've fretted away and hunt down the doctor and ask them that they tell us what they are doing. Now that we know how it works, it's alot better. We chase the doctor when we know the results are ready and get updates straight away.

We are thankful, however, that this is a short term treatable condition with no long term consequences (for the medicos out there, there are no blood incompatibilities, etc). We'll just have to put up with the inconvenience for a few days longer. One benefit has been that it is easier for Jo to get sleep, so she's been trying to store up some for the coming weeks.

Here is a photo of Owen sunbaking. Notice that they have opened his nappy to give him a VERY even tan.

The lastest good news is that he has been feeding really well now, and the jaundice is (slowly) going away. We are hoping to come home on Sunday.

Der zweiter Tag (The second day)

2005-11-18T09:02:00.000+11:00

We’ve had a tiring few days, as Owen hasn’t been feeding so well. As a result (or is it the cause?), he has some Jaundice, and the doctors and nurses have been a little concerned. Apparently this is reasonably common, however it was all a bit stressful because the language barrier made it difficult to know what they wanted us to do. To add to the difficulties, the nurses are quite disorganized, and whenever there is a change of shift, they don’t seem to tell each other which instructions we have been given. As a result, we get told to do a different thing every 8 hours! The Jaundice means that he likes to sleep a lot, which means he’s been very peaceful.

Most of the instructions (eg feed every 2.5 hours) have been quite demanding, especially on Jo. As a result, she is particularly tired. The nights are the worst, because Nathan isn’t around to help out. Jo’s looking forward to going home so we can share the load more easily.

Fortunately, we have our English speaking midwife, the one who was at the birth. She knows the German system of doing things, and has been able to help us understand what we are being asked to do. She has also been able to act as an advocate for us in ensuring we can take actions consistent with how we want to do things and in a way that is manageable.

Owen is getting better, and we hope to go home tomorrow. He’s filling out a bit, though his fingers are still a little wrinkled. We’ve noticed that he likes to sleep like Nathan –with his hands above his head. Here’s a photo.

We’ve also had a visit from Fu and Bood at the end of their European holiday. Here’s a picture of them holding the baby – they are quite privileged – the first Australian friends to see Owen in person!

Food – Jo has rejoiced in being finally able to eat some of the forbidden foods. Today she had some Sushi. She said that it’s been so long since she’s eaten it - even if it was terrible sushi, she wouldn’t have been able to tell. She’s also eaten some camembert, black forest schinken (cured ham) and salami. Once she gets home, she’ll be having some Bratwurst, and a celebratory champagne.

Der erste Tag (The first day)

2005-11-17T09:01:00.000+11:00

One day has now gone past. So far Owen has mostly slept. He woke up two times during the night, and had a few nappy changes. Nathan is proud to have successfully changed his first nappy but wasn’t able to catch the pee that projectiled towards him while he was reaching for the nappy wipes (recorded on video).

We’ve both enjoyed just holding Owen, though he is REALLY heavy. He must have spent the extra week inside packing on the pounds. He hasn’t cried that much, except when Nathan was trying to change his nappy. Here is a photo of him crying.

The nurses are obsessed with keeping the babies warm. The first night, the kept telling us off because "seine Nase ist kalt" (his nose is cold). He was wearing the standard hospital issue clothing and blanket, but they wanted us to hold him to our chest and wrap him in a big pillow as well. When he’s put to sleep, the big pillow is like a little doona. Here are a couple of photos demonstrating the methods.

It probably makes sense to take these precautions in a country with such cold winters. When a German asks "how cold does it get in Australia?", and we answer "maybe 10 degrees", they then ask "plus or minus 10?" The fact that they know Australia is a warm place, and they still need to ask that question gives you an idea of how cold it could get over here. The night before the birth, it was +3 degrees outside... and it's only November!

Useful German vocabulary for looking after a baby:

Stillen (Breast feed)
Saugen (Sucking)
Warum weinst du? (Why are you crying?)
Hugrig (hungry)
Müde (Tired)
Windel (Nappy)
Wickeln (change a nappy)
Wer ist der nette kleine Junge? (Who’s a cute little boy, then?)
Stuhl (Poo... or Chair!!)
Urin (Wee)
Spucken (vomit)
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine Blätter (German kids song)

Mehr über die Geburt (More about the birth)

2005-11-17T08:42:00.000+11:00

First another two photos. One of Father and Son (just after birth), one of Mother and Son (1 day old).

Some of you have been asking for some details of the birth. It’s full of Schmerzen (pain), Blut (Blood) and Schreie (Screams). If you want to know more, you’ll have to ask Jo directly.

Nathan was able to cut the cord. Apart from that and giving Jo the occasional massage, and holding her hand, he mostly just stood around trying not to get in anyone’s way.

We found it a bit difficult that the midwives didn’t speak much English. Fortunately we had our own English speaking midwife with us, who had given us ante-natal classes. She was officially there as our translator, and was not allowed to be a midwife as such, but she helped Jo heaps by talking through what was happening and how to deal with the pain. Everything happened exactly how she had previously explained, which made the whole process a lot more manageable.

So now that Jo has joined the club of women who have given birth naturally, does she still want another one, and would she change anything next time? Yes and maybe. Jo isn’t sure if she could go through it again without any pain relief, although they say the first one is usually the hardest.

Useful German vocabulary when giving birth:
Schmerzen (Pain)
Wehe (Contraction/labour pain)
Tut Weh (hurts)
wenden Sie an die andere Seite (Turn onto the other side)
Schmerzen
drücken Sie mit ganzer Kraft (Push with all your might!)
Tut Weh
Noch einmal. Fast Da. (one more time, it’s almost there). They said this so many times that we didn't believe them any more.
Schmerzen.
Muttermund (cervix. Literally mother mouth)
Tut Weh
Wenn das Baby kommt, klingeln Sie hier (If the baby comes, ring the buzzer).
Schmerzen
Er ist ein Junge (It's a boy!)
Tut Weh

Wilkommen zur Welt (Welcome to the world )

2005-11-15T07:07:00.000+11:00

It's the news we've all been waiting for. Much later than we expected, and trying our patience, our child was born at 14:09 on 14th November, 3.22kg and 48 cm. As you can tell from the first photo... it's a boy!

Owen Matthias is his name. Owen means "Well born", and indeed he was. A relatively short labour of 5 hours, without the need of any serious pain relief. Jo was given a drip with something mild in it, but she says it didn't do anything at all! Matthias is a German name (we wanted to give him one, since he is born in Germany). It's a German form of Matthew, and is pronounced Mat-TEE-yes.

Here's a photo of a very proud mum and dad. Mum is doing fine - a little sore, but up and about. Dad is not traumatised from witnessing his wife in pain. All are tired and looking forward to some rest.

Also, a photo of a new Grandma. She was waiting anxiously at home during labour, and joined us in the evening.

And finally a more modest photo of Owen.

PS More photos planned for future posts.

Wir erwarten ein Baby (We are expecting a baby)

2005-10-31T07:50:00.000+11:00

OK, so you knew this already (well, if you didn't, I suspect you stumbled on this blog site by mistake!). But now we are expecting a baby ANY MOMENT NOW. It is now exactly 1 week before the official due date, however it is very common to be up to 2 weeks before or after this date. Jo is getting quite uncomfortable now, and is keen for the baby to arrive slightly earlier rather than later.

We have almost everything prepared. Here is the storage for all the clothes, toys and nappies. It also doubles as a change area. Chances are your baby shower present is visible here or in the drawers and shelves.

Important is a place to sleep. We have borrowed a kinderbett from friends at church.

And all ready to hit the road. If you remember one of the earliest posts, you can now check out a real German kinderwagen (pram). Note the very large wheels, solid construction and winter protection.

Kinderwagen and autositz are borrowed from generous friends, also from Church.

The Baby Björn Carrier (Baby Björn carrier - yes that's right, it's called the same thing in German!) was bought here. As you can see, Nathan is practising carrying our 'baby' around. He says it makes him feel good. We just need to put a few weights in the teddy.

Die Farben des Herbstes (The colours of autumn)

2005-10-31T05:26:00.000+11:00

Autumn (der Herbst) is definitely here. The colours are absolutely gorgeous. It's great to live so near to parks and to pass the red, yellow and orange trees on daily travels. The leaves make a wonderful "swish, swish, swish" as you walk your way through them.

The weather in the past few days has been perfect - warm enough that we can even eat ice cream. We wouldn't have dreamed of this two weeks ago, when we were buying heavy coats to ward off the coming winter. Here are a few shots in Johanna Park.

Jo's Schwangermode (Jo's pregnancy fashion)

2005-10-26T03:16:00.000+10:00

We thought we'd better put some pictures of Jo here as so many of you ask about the bump.
It is certainly bigger. In fact, some of the tops Jo was wearing no longer completely cover the bump. She is quite sick of her clothing options and cannot wait until she can wear some more 'normal' attire.

The bump is quite active too. Quite frequently we see the bump change shape. It's very strong and continues to find new spaces to stick it's limbs.

Leipzig

2005-10-24T01:43:00.000+10:00

As mentioned in a previous post, we went on a tour of Leipzig last weekend. Our guide was a historian who attends our Church. Until that time, we had done surprisingly little "touristy" things in the city. Here are a few pictures.

Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Leipzig for over 25 years, at the Thomaskirche (Thomas Church). He was at the Thomasschule (Thomas School), and led a boys choir that still exists today. He also composed many of his works in this city. Here is a picture of us at his statue, which is located outside the Thomaskirche.

The MDR building is one of the highest in the city. It used to belong to the university, and was built in DDR times. From the top, you have a great view of the whole city.

Here is a picture of the Neues Rathous (new town hall) from the top. It was finished in 1905, and doesn't look that new... but the old one was built in 1557! The neues Rathaus was built on the site of an old castle, so the architecture was designed to remind you of this.

Here is another view from the MDR building. This time, you can just see in the distance through the fog, a rather large monument. The monument is called the Völkerschlachtdenkmals (memorial to the battle of the nations). It's a large monument to commemorate the battle between Napoleon and a coalition of other nations, which occurred at Leipzig. This was one of the three significant defeats for Napolean. The other two being the failed invasion of Russia, and Waterloo.

Another famous church is the Nikolaikirche (Saint Nicholas Church). During DDR times, this church held a prayer meeting/service every Monday to pray for peace. Afterwards, the people would make a peaceful walk throughout the city. During the turbulent times in the 1980s, where communism crumbled throughout eastern europe, more and more people started to come to the Monday prayer meeting and the subsequent march. Not everyone was interested in prayer, though, and only joined for the march, which was called Montagsdemonstration (Monday demonstration). The march was at pains to ensure no violence, and so they held candles (it's hard to throw stones and run around while nursing a candle, and you can be easily seen from a distance). Within living memory was a violent put-down of popular protest in the early days of the DDR - there was a real fear that this might happen again. The turning point came when the Stasi (DDR secret police) were ordered to arrest all the protesters. Unfortunately for them, on that day there were far more people than they were expecting, and there were not enough places to store all the prisoners if they were to follow their plans. The Stasi reported this to main headquarters and waited for a response. While they waited, they did nothing, and then it was too late. The marchers had spread out throughout the city and were unstoppable. Parallel protests throughout the whole DDR forced die Wende (the change) to occur, the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the reunficiation of germany. Even now, Monday is still the day of protests, and many Monday afternoons you will find a demonstration marching through the city. All this started at the Nikolaikirche monday prayer meeting. Unfortunately we don't have a photo of this church for you, but here is a link to a photo of the Montagsdemonstration.

www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/DieDeutscheEinheit_photoMontagsdemonstrationInLeipzig/

LEC Zehnjahrestag Feiern (LEC 10 year anniversary celebration)

2005-10-20T04:35:00.000+10:00

LEC = Leipzig English Church. On Nathan's birthday 10 years ago, the LEC held its first church service (Gottesdienst). This year, on the weekend of Nathan's birthday, LEC had its anniversary celebration.

On Saturday, there was a tour of Leipzig, which we and Nathan's parents joined (more of that in another post). In the evening was a reunion dinner, where many current and old members attended from all over the world. We worked out how many different countries were represented there, and there were too many to remember. Some of the countries: Australia, Hungary, UK, Germany, USA, Canada, 3-4 african countries, China, Korea...

On Sunday there was a special service in the Lutheran church, where Martin (pastor) reflected on the past 10 years. He spoke on 2 Corinthians 4:7 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us". He suggested that this verse characterised LEC best. It is a church that is made up of ordinary and unspectacular people, but somehow God has used the people to grow a church from nothing and affect so many people through the treasure of the Gospel.

Here is a picture of us just after the "official" photo was taken. Unfortunately a bit messy, as everyone was anxious to get some snacks made by the church members, and therefore quite varied in style and origin. Jo made a Pav, which although is claimed by both Australia and New Zealand, can be passed off here as Aussie - especially since there are no Kiwis to argue the point.
The Pav went down well. "Sehr lecker" - very delicious!

Unsere Eltern (Our parents)

2005-10-20T04:17:00.000+10:00

There's been a drought of posts over the past month, mainly because we have been quite busy with family visiting. Both Jo's and Nathan's parents have been in town, and all have stayed with us in our apartment (for a few days everyone was together, making it full but still comfortable). It was great to see them all after a few months way from home.

Here's a picture of all of us having a birthday dinner for Jo and Nathan at one of our most often visited restaurant in Leipzig. It's a funny restaurant. We've only sat outside, which is quite normal as you can see. On the inside, however, you lie on beds, and eat off tiny tables placed in the middle of the beds. A bit like the romans, except you have to feed yourselves. No photos, unfortunately.

A few updates also on some of our earlier posts.

Rugby League - the Tigers won the NRL grand final!! Nathan was disappointed he couldn't see ANY footage of the game over here.

German election results - after many weeks of negotiation, the "Grand Coalition" has been formed, with Angela Merkel (leader of the black CDU party) becoming the first woman and first East German chancellor. Schroeder, the leader of the other coalition partner (the red SPD) has decided to step aside from the leadership. No-one is sure how this coalition is going to turn out. It will be an interesting time for us to observe this political situation first hand.

Man darf hier rauchen (One is allowed to smoke here)

2005-10-19T23:21:00.000+10:00

We found this absolutely shameful ad in Leipzig. You know how you notice something once and then it seems that you see it everywhere...well, this ad was everywhere! It's an ad for cigarettes and says it's Australia's number one brand - as if that's a reason to smoke it...

Considering that smoking is banned from so many public places in Australia and that advertisements in Australia are about how bad smoking is for you (Quit hotline etc), this just ad in Leipzig is so wrong.

Dresden

2005-09-26T03:20:00.000+10:00

The capital city of Sachsen-Anhalt (the state that Leipzig is in) is Dresden. At the beginning of September we went there for our wedding anniversary (I know, it took a while to get around to writing this entry!).

There is some rivalry between Dresden and Leipzig (the second main city in this state). Dresden is where the ruler was - the city of culture, administration, etc. Leipzig was a city of trade. Each city needed the other, but often didn't like each other. Like many of these things, the rivalry continues to the present day.

Dresden is much more popular with tourists than Leipzig, and it definitely has a more interesting and beautiful zentrum (inner city). It is on a river, and has the remains of an impressive city wall. Here is a picture over the river from the top of the wall.

Another nice spot is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). It was completely bombed out near the end of WWII, and has been rebuilt over the past few years. As much as possible they have tried to use the old stonework in the original positions. In this photo you can see the mixture of the old stones (darker in colour) and the newer ones.

On one side of the church is the restored statue of Martin Luther. As well as being instrumental in the Reformation, Luthor's life and work had a profound effect on the history of the German people.

We were fortunate to hit Dresden during a festival of some kind. It was a little like a mini Oktoberfest, with beer, bratwurst and handicraft stalls around.

Here's a picture of Jo in front of one of the stalls. The hearts are made of gingerbread, and have various valentines days phrases in German, some of which are quite amusing. There's the usual "Ich liebe dich" - I love you. There's also "Ich will dich" I want you. "Du bist süß" - you are sweet. "Ohne dich bin ich nichts" without you, I am nothing. "Ohne dich kann ich nicht leben" - without you I can't live. "Du bist mein Schatz" - you are my dear. "Nur du allein" Only you alone. "Ich träume nur von dir" - I only dream of you. Bookmark this page - you never know when you might need some of these phrases!

Wie sagt man "No" auf Deutsch? (How do you say "No" in German?)

2005-09-26T02:55:00.000+10:00

The obvious answer, which most people know, is "Nein". You pronounce it a bit like the english number "9".

The real answer is that it depends where in Germany you are.

In the part of Germany we are in (Sachsen), they say naaay (a little scottish?). In some parts of Germany, they say Naaaah (lazy australian?). In yet others they say Nooo (standard english?), and elsewhere noieee (if someone can tell us where else they say this, let us know!).

Fortunately, they all understand (and occassionally use) the standard "Nein".

Fußball (Football, Soccer)

2005-09-24T04:27:00.000+10:00

The Germans are into Fußball. Nathan has been given lessons in the basic positional patterns (4/3/3 and 4/4/2), optimal substitution times (45, 55, 60 or 75 minutes), the best attributes at each position (eg very tall, heavier players for centre defenders compared to smaller and quicker players as the outside defenders).

Nathan has even been assigned a football team to barrack for - Borussia Dortmund. The reason being that they have the same colours as his NRL team - the Wests Tigers. Normally Nathan doesn't tell people that he goes for the Tigers, as they are usually near the bottom of the table. The year that he's out of Australia, they are doing the best they've ever done since the Balmain Tigers were in the grand final in 1989. Tomorrow they are playing in the Preliminary final against St George for a place in the Grand final! [Later note - they won, and are in the grand final!!!]

Borussia is currently in 9th place out of 18 teams.

Difficult German language concept: Separable verbs (Trennenbare Verben)
In German, you can combine verbs with prefixes to give different meanings. eg aufstehen = up stand = get up. Zusammenbauen = together build = assemble. There is a similar concept in English, such as overhear, understand, describe. And, just like English, there are some seperable verbs that don't make intuitive sense. eg übersitzen = Over Put = Translate. aufhören = on listen = stop. That's not so bad, except that these verbs are separable, which means that the preposition is usually said at the end of the sentence. I'll give you an equivelant english example:

Did you hear what they said over? = Did you overhear what they said?

What makes it even worse, is that different prepositions at the end of the sentence will change the meaning totally, and you might not remember the rest of the sentence by the time you work out the main action taking place.

eg
I can't stand the attack under the wall at our left flank which will leave our archers unprotected under.
I can't stand the attack under the wall at our left flank which will leave our archers unprotected with.

The Germans have fought many battles in their long history. I wonder how many were lost because the messenger forgot the last word?

Deutschland entscheidet (Germany Decides)

2005-09-22T05:33:00.000+10:00

Over the past week, we have learn more about German politics than we knew about Australian politics (well, maybe not quite...). In case you missed it, Germany had an election last weekend, and the result has got everyone in Germany talking.

The problem is - no one won the election. The election was particularly close, and neither of the main coalitions have a majority. Unlike Australian politics, there are 5 significant parties in Germany, and none of them are in as close a coalition as the Liberal/National coalition (ie they often backstab each other). This means that the 5 parties must now negotiate with each other to form a new coalition that will have a majority.

What makes German politics fun, is that each party has its own colour.

CDU/CSU - Black (a bit like the Liberal/National coalition).
SPD - Red (a bit like the ALP).
Greens - Green (like the Greens).
FDP - Yellow (economic rationalists).
The Lefts - RED (communists).

OK, I know there's two red parties, but that's not my fault. The lefts are new, and since they're communist, they have to be red!

OK, now the fun starts.

The two biggest parties are the Black and Red, each with around 35% of the votes. They both have smaller partners (Black with Yellow, Red with Green) of around 10% each, and there is the RED party with around 10%.

So the traditional Black/Yellow or Red/Green coalitions are not strong enough to form Government. What happens now?

The obvious solution is that one of the coalitions accepts the RED party into their coalition, and form government. Sorry, won't work - both main coalitions made it very clear they will not talk to the REDS. They are the bad guys at the moment.

OK, so there is an impasse. What's the solution? The coalitions will need to mix up. Three options have been put forward:

The traffic light coalition (ampel). Red, Yellow, Green - get it? Traffic light? So this requires the Yellow faction to betray their Black partners. They already said they will not do this.

The Jamaica coalition. Black, Green Yellow is the Jamaican flag. This requires the Greens to betray their Red partners. The greens are open to this, and this seems a likely possibility.

The GRAND coalition. Wait for it - the Black and Reds get together and form government, each ditching their respective coalition partners. The closest parallel I can think of is like the ALP right faction and Liberals getting together to form goverment and ditching the rest of the ALP and the nationals. Can you imagine that? Well, the leaders of the Reds and Blacks refuse to consider the grand coalition unless they themselves get to be the Chancellor. There can only be one Chancellor, so that's a problem.

So - are you confused? Don't worry, when a German was explaining to Nathan, he said "Don't worry if you're confused... we're confused, and we're German"!

There was a funny caricature of the three potential Jamaica coalition leaders dressed as Jamaicans. Here's a link - hope it still works!
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20050922&hn=24325

Erneuerbare Energie (Renewable energy)

2005-09-14T05:57:00.000+10:00

As you should know, the reason we are in Germany is because of renewable energy, specifically Solar (Sonnenenergie). In Germany, about 10% of it energy is obtained from renewable sources - Wind (Windenergie), Solar and Biomass (Biomasse). This is quite an achievement.

Wind energy makes up the bulk of this (60%), and the landscape is in some places dominated by the wind turbines. Many of the Germans have complained about how ugly they look, but Nathan likes the look of them. Jo agrees with the Germans!

Above is a picture of a wind turbine. It doesn't look like much in a photo, but up close they are REALLY big. Can you see Nathan in the picture? If not, here is a close-up of the base. Impressive, aren't they?

Ich fahre, du fahrst, er fahrt (I drive, you drive, he fart... I mean drives)

2005-09-13T05:59:00.000+10:00

More on driving in Leipzig.

* Some traffic lights are turned off in the evening and weekends, because there isn't enough traffic to justify keeping them on.

* Blitzer = Speed camera. These take photos from the front! They need to have a photo of your face. Unlike in Australia, the actual driver is solely responsible, not the owner of the car. This means in theory that if you obstruct the view of your face you could potentially get away with not paying a fine because they can’t be 100% sure it was you. Can you spot the blitzer?

* Yellow rectangle signs with a town/city name on it mean “go at 50km/h”. It doesn’t actually have the number 50 anywhere or any ‘speed sign’ near it. You’re just supposed to know it. There’s one on the way into Leipzig from the north and there is a blitzer soon after it. Very sneaky if you ask us. How are you supposed to know that! Fortunately Nathan was given plenty of warning about this particular nasty.

* There are blue speed signs that mean you must go FASTER than the stated speed. Only in Germany....

Shau Mama - ohne Hände! (Look mum, no hands!)

2005-09-13T05:40:00.000+10:00

Gib mir mein Ampelmann zuruck! (Give me back my traffic light man!)

2005-09-10T06:43:00.000+10:00

Strange German Culture #3. In former East Germany (GDR, which includes Leipzig), the traffic lights have quite distinctive pedestrian signals. Let me explain.

During GDR times, the East Germans developed their own ampelmann signs. Here are some pictures of the red and green Ampelmann.

Ampel = traffic lights. Mann = man. Notice the cute hats and unique walking style.

When East and West Germany were united, East Germany was more or less absorbed into West Germany. One of the changes was the replacement of all the old Ampelmann with the West German standard. Sometimes people just go too far. There was an uproar.

"You can take away our industries, take away our jobs, take away our government... but you can't take away our ampelmann!".

With such an impassioned plea as this, how could you say no. The East German Ampelmann was brought back out of retirement to adorn the streets yet again.

Leipzig Englisch Kirche (Leipzig English Church)

2005-09-10T06:14:00.000+10:00

As previously mentioned, one of the highlights of our time here has been our new church. We contacted this church months ago before we even started packing up our house. It has been wonderful to attend here. We were welcomed from the moment we stepped into the building. It’s a little strange when we meet people (we meet someone we don’t know every week we go) and they say “oh you’re the ones from Australia”. Apparently they’ve never had Australians attend the church before. LEC has a very international feel – there are people from so may parts of the world (England, USA, Canada, Africa, Indonesia, Brunei, Germany, China and now Australia!). There are always people coming and going. For the first few weeks the congregation was saying goodbye to someone or other. We attend in the morning at 10:30am. It has a mixture of families and some students. You can check out the website for this church at http://www.leipzig-english-church.de/

Here's a picture of the family we stayed with for our first month in Leipzig.

We meet in a Lutheran church hall (Gemaindehaus). The actual Lutheran church building for this hall is across the road and only used for special events e.g. weddings. Some years ago, it’s congregation (German) merged with another Lutheran church and they meet at that other church building. Here is a picture of the church building that we DON'T meet in.

Nathan is planning to help a little with the Sunday School, which lacks male teachers. Jo is going to play the piano for the church service sometimes. We hope to attend a home group soon and Jo will likely go to the women’s bible study group one morning a week.

Spaghetti Eis (Spaghetti Ice Cream)

2005-09-05T05:04:00.000+10:00

Strange German culture #2. Spaghetti Ice Cream?? Did I hear that right? You sure did. Spaghetti Eis is a dessert you can buy here which is supposed to look like Spaghetti Bolognese, but is actually made up of ice cream (spaghetti), strawberry sauce (bolognese), and white chocolate flakes (parmesan cheese). Needless to say, Nathan just had to try this. Here's a picture of them making the spaghetti.

And here's a picture of the finished product. The verdict? It doesn't taste like spaghetti, but it's not bad. It was a bit surprising to try and eat pure cream at the bottom. Don't know why it was there...

Bist du Schwanger (Are you pregnant?)

2005-08-28T17:03:00.000+10:00

We considered labelling this item "Wir bauen für Sie #3" - see the previous 2 posts if you are confused.

Since we arrived in Leipzig, one of the highest items on the agenda was working out the who, what, when, where and how of having a baby in Germany. We’ve had lots of help from people, and now have:
1) an English speaking Obstretrician (FrauenArzt).
2) an English speaking Midwife (Hebamme) to give antenatal classes, attend the birth and help with mothercraft after the birth (Yes, that IS a word. For those like Nathan who aren’t in the know, mothercraft is the collection of mothering skills such as breast feeding, settling the baby, bathing the baby, changing nappies).
3) A hospital to give birth in (Frauenklinik). Alternatives included a home birth and a birthing centre (geburtshaus).
4) Lots of offers to help look after baby and mum after the birth.

Mum is doing fine, and the baby says "kick, hiccup, punch". Since coming to Germany, Nathan has felt and seen the kicks a few times. Jo feels them almost all the time.

We've had a lot of comments such as "why aren't there many photos of Jo and the bump". So here is a profile of Jo, taken in Johanna Park, only 5 minutes walk away from our house. Jo likes it that our closest park is hers!

Strange German Culture #1 - In some parts of Germany, Beer is not considered alcohol. Workers have the right to a half litre of beer during lunch. In the past, the calories in the beer were a significant part of the energy intake in these areas, and if the workers didn't get their beer, they wouldn't work.

Wir bauen für Sie #2 - Furniture

2005-08-28T16:33:00.000+10:00

On Monday a week ago we received a HUGE delivery from IKEA (pronounced ee-kay-are in Germany). For the whole week, Nathan (and Jo where possible) have been "Bauen für Sie". Attached is a picture of most (but not all) of the cardboard packaging to give an idea of how much there was. You can also see how we've furnshed the empty room we showed you a few weeks ago.

IKEA has a pretty bad name in Germany. Real estate agent: "Oh sure, you can rent a furnished apartment, but it will probably be furnished with cheap IKEA furniture". But nevertheless, it is very popular. We bought it for these reasons:

1) It IS cheap and it does the job.
2) We're only here a year, so it doesn't matter if it breaks after a while.
3) It actually requires less effort than getting second hand furniture, which you have to move assembled, or disassemble, move and reassemble.
5) It was too much effort shopping around lots of smaller shops, when we really wanted a couch to sit on as quickly as possible.

Leipzig is in the state of Saxony, and IKEA is located in the state next door - Saxony-Anhalt. When IKEA first opened, the Saxony government didn't like the idea of all their people shopping in the next state, so they refused to upgrade the access road. Fortunately they saw sense, and it's now a pleasant 30 minute drive from home.

Strange German Language concept #1 – Heute Nacht = Tonight. HOWEVER, in the morning, Heute Nacht = last night. Eg Heute nacht habe ich ein schlechtes Traum = Tonight I have a terrible dream = last night I had a terrible dream.

Wir bauen für Sie #1! (We build for YOU!)

2005-08-28T16:21:00.000+10:00

Along the motorways, you can sometimes see a sign with this written on it. It's there to explain to motorists why half the autobahn is being dug up, and the speed limit is only 60km/h. I think it's supposed to reduce frustration at crawling when most would like to be travelling at 200km/h +.

There appears to be building all over the place. Always somewhere on the Autobahn, but also in Leipzig city. Leipzig is hosting some of the Soccer World Cup games, and has decided to upgrade its infrastructure. This includes building an underground railway under the city centre. As a result, Leipzig is "Bauen für Sie"! Attached is a picture of some road work, which has shut down one of the terminus tram stops and brought the tram system in the whole city to a standstill.

Because of all the building, navigating through Leipzig at the moment is pretty difficult. One day you have worked out your favourite route to work, and the next day it's blocked off by road work and you have to find another way.

Something new to our eyes on the building sites... you don't often see any people on them, and you certainly don't see three "supervisors" watching one council worker dig a ditch. Almost all the building work is done from inside large trucks of various descriptions.

Useful Word #2. Zeug (neuter) = Thing. Eg Flugzeug = flying thing = aeroplane, Spielzeug = playing thing = toy, Werkzeug = working thing = tool.